Witnesses and Miracles

     “The crowd witnessed this miracle…and they couldn’t stop talking about Jesus.” John 12-17

     Witnesses and Miracles

     By Debby Higgins

     There are 24 witness trees of various species on the Gettysburg Battlefield. These trees have lived through battles, fires and thunderstorms and still they stand in testimony to the tribulations of time. They are protected as living members of that hallowed ground that witnessed the tragedy of war in 1863. It is something of a miracle that they have survived for so long. We had a witness tree, a maple, on our land that recently fell under the chainsaw. According to the tree cutter, it was at least 100 years old as was his best guess. It had been struck by lightning and was diseased so it had to be taken down. It stood just alongside the road and was a sapling long before that road was paved and long before my family bought the property in 1938. I remember as a child I once took shelter under its sturdy branches during a storm, much to the chagrin of my father. I on the other hand, never feared the tree would not protect me. I miss that giant old maple that once stood proud and grand by the roadside.

     My witness tree was a reminder of the many years I’ve lived on family property and my life growing up there, Ted and I raising our children there, watching my parents grow old and passing away and the family farm going by the wayside. I, like the old (not quite that old) maple, am a witness to the changing times and the many experiences - good and not so good- I have encountered and in some cases, been a party to. Not unlike those who witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and who believed in the power of his good works and miracles, I also believe in the power of witnessing acts of goodness. I believe Jesus walks among us and he performs miracles every day. Whether he’s guiding the steady hand of a surgeon performing life saving emergency surgery on a patient, placing a police officer at the scene of an accident at just the right time to save a victim or compelling a neighbor to entering a burning home to save a person or a pet, Jesus puts us where we need to be. Those unsung heroes are the first to say they “didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t do” but they did and Jesus was there to give them the support to perform those miracles when they needed it. They may not know it but they are witnesses, too, witnesses to Jesus’ teachings of the power of good acts and faith in something bigger than us simply through their actions. More now than ever, we need Jesus’ power of good and a miracle or two to help renew us to be whole in body, mind, and spirit. Just believe a little faith will carry us through, now at the Resurrection and always.