Is a small miracle still a miracle?

They say that the age of miracles is past, but not at our church. Christmas 2012 may be a distant memory, but I will never forget the many “small miracles” that God sent our way.

As part of our service to the community we provided food hampers for 155 families. Within those families there were 334 children, all of whom received at least one gift. Homeless people also received hampers and presents.

But there were times when the store of food and presents was running out. That's when God intervened. One day 5 teenagers stood in our foyer and our initial thought was that they wanted help. It turned out that they were on a course at the local college and one had taken upon herself to organise her classmates, print leaflets and encourage her fellow students and the customers at a local supermarket to donate food to The Salvation Army. They were waiting for their tutor to arrive, whose car was full of the tinned food. It seems that a year earlier, the young lady had been homeless and had received support at our Wednesday evening Soup Kitchen. This was her way of repaying the favour.

After the hampers had all been distributed a young woman arrived requesting one. We had to search around for stuff to give her. Whilst enquiring about how old her children were, a man arrived to donate some toys, which of course were for the ages required.

My son had bought some new trainers that turned out to be the wrong size and rather than take them back, he gave them to The Army. Taking them in, our pastor asked what size they were? It turned out that they were the exact size required by a gentleman at the previous evening's Soup Kitchen.

A man who recently came out of prison, arrived looking for help to get a bed for his flat. Our Centre Manager was talking to him in the foyer about what we would do for him. Queuing up the stairs were many ladies waiting to get into the slimming club and clearly they had heard the discussion, as a number of them gave donations.

Coincidences? No, I like to think of them as small miracles. We certainly experienced the truth of the words from Philippians 4:19 that “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus”. We couldn't have done what we did without the generosity of the general public who donated to our Christmas Kettle appeal, nor with those who went the extra mile to bring food or toys into our Centre, just when we needed them.

So the next time that you are prompted to give some money, food or new goods to The Salvation Army or another charity, don't hesitate, as you too may have the privilege of being involved in one of God's miracles.