I've seen the movie "17 Miracles" several times and have read the thick documentary "The Price We Paid" by Andrew Olson, so I was familiar with the story of the Willie Handcart Company pioneer woman, Ann Rowley. But, the way that Elder Nash read her story and the inflection he used made it powerfully moving to me.
Quoting Sister Rowley: “It hurt me to see my children go hungry. … Night was coming and there was no food for the evening meal. I asked God’s help as I always did. I got on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuits that … had been left over from the sea voyage. They were not large, and were so hard they couldn’t be broken. Surely, that was not enough to feed 8 people, but 5 loaves and 2 fishes were not enough to feed 5,000 people either, but through a miracle, Jesus HAD done it. So, with God’s help, nothing is impossible. I found the biscuits and put them in a dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for God’s blessing. Then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals. When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan filled with food. I kneeled with my family and thanked God for his goodness. That night my family had sufficient food.”
Ann Rowley knew that God could do what her limited knowledge thought was implausible. She remembered that Christ fed the multitudes in a way that mortal mind could not compute She took her hard sea-biscuits and asked God to blow her mind-- "Heavenly Father, amaze me with what is completely illogical. Help me feed my starving children with two old biscuits."
This story teaches me that we don't need to know how the miracle will occur to exercise faith. What we need is to know is that God is Omnipotent and that His workings extend beyond what mortals understand. Elder Nash quotes from the hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light": Lead, kindly Light amid the encircling gloom; Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene-- one step enough for me. (1833 by John Henry Newman)
One step, enough for me.
Oh. This is tough. How often I have said, "If I just knew the outcome... if I knew that everything would be ok... then that would give me strength or courage to press on." But, this is not what Elder Nash and Ann Rowley and Mr Newman taught and it is certainly not faith. They taught that faith is NOT knowing how on earth your pitiful contribution could be enough, but instead believing, trusting, hoping that our kind and knowing and powerful God can work it out. And in His timing and in some magnificent way that we never would have imagined, !!ta da!!-- a pan FULL of food! Elder Nash said that, "We, too, can exercise such faith in the Lord, believing and trusting that our kind and constant God will bless us with His miraculous power suited to our circumstance, according to His timing."
It makes me all frog-throated to write this. I am feeling the witness of the Holy Ghost, so, I know it's true. I do believe But, ugh, then there is that part of me where I line up behind the New Testament father with the gnashing, thrashing, foaming boy-- "Lord, I believe, Help Thou, my unbelief." (Mark 9:14-24) I think that he and I could say together, "I believe with conviction that Thou art aware of me, know me, and care about my needs. I know You love me and mine, and I know You weep." But, then maybe that ancient Dad and I would a pause and wonder how on earth could the present, what we actually see, become what we hope for.
Oh. That darn unbelief. That's why Peter fell into the water. (Matthew 14) Elder Nash reminded "(Peter) could have continued walking had he not feared!" Really? Yes. He could have ignored the "boisterous winds and waves", kept his eye and mind and heart on Christ who stood there beckoning, and then continued to walk on water. There it is --the illogical, the implausible, the miracle. People don't walk on water. Multitudes aren't fed on five loaves. Seas do not open and reveal dry land. Lions don't live in pits with humans and not strike. Fiery furnaces burn flesh. Food doesn't not fall from the sky like dew. Hundreds of arrows shot in anger don't miss a man on a wall. Boys with a third grade education do not translate books from Reformed Egyptian.
But, with God, they do.
I wonder about Moses as he stood at the waters edge with the Israelite Nation on the run at his back. Clearly, he stretched forth his staff with faith in the God of miracles. But I'm curious if he wondered exactly how God was going to facilitate his people in their needful walk through the Red Sea-- boats? ferries? whales? heroic swimming? And then, the water parted. It opened, and the land was dry. God's power was revealed in what we would say was super, dooper supernatural.
This is what I have learned--
Perhaps, way, way beyond what our finite minds can reckon, with God, all things are possible to them that believe. (Matthew 19-26).
Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_23330678_cooking-in-the-forest.html'>svetlanka / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
