Miracles

I recently finished the book Miracles by the great C.S. Lewis. The writing was his usual down to earth commentary that the "everyman" can understand and enjoy. My understanding of what exactly a miracle is was greatly helped by this book.

There are two categories that Lewis distinguishes between: Naturalists and super-naturalists. Naturalists, according to Lewis, have a specific emphasis that everything is just a process and progress of nature itself. But, Lewis argues, miracles then would not be miracles and therefore just something that nature does naturally. Which, as you can probably deduce, would not make it a miracle. It is an interesting distinction.

The super-naturalists are those that attribute that miracles can and do occur and that they are actions of the hand of God reaching into nature. The nature that he created. It is not a disruptive action or one the goes against the laws of nature. They are consistent with nature, but beyond nature so to speak. And this "beyond nature" is a benevolent being, the being that we have been privileged to call God our Father.

Now, I am just an amateur, but the way that I interpret that is this: God plays a role in our lives through various miracles and these miracles are tastes of the new creation that will be at the end of the world. The perfect world that God had intended for us in the first place. They are outward signs that God is still with us, kind of like sacraments. I think the question is then how does God interact with the world? Miracles don't go against the laws of nature, they show us a different dimension of nature. God's nature.

Just check out the book for yourself.