“MIRACLE SURVIVOR!” exclaims a newspaper headline, when a person is extricated from rubble days after a destructive earthquake; and “miracle” it is, of a kind. Having found no other word descriptive enough to convey the unexpected outcome, a newspaper subeditor linked it to a biblical happening and added “miracle” as a verbal exclamation.
The result is that most people now accept the idea of a secular miracle yet dismiss the idea of Divine one. We know that when people speak of their escape as nothing short of miraculous, what they mean is they are unable to explain how they survived. Attributing survival to Divine intervention would imply that God inexplicably chooses to save some while ignoring the equally desperate plight of others.
Survivor’s Syndrome results when people seek to find logic and reason where they do not exist. The survivor questions, “How come I escaped yet others didn’t?” The survivor may believe that those who perished were more needed in life, and this fosters guilt and the belief that they ought not to have survived. But as one man famous for his wisdom reflected: “The fastest runner does not always win the race or the strongest soldier the battle. Wise men do not always become rich, and men who have what it takes are not always promoted.
Things happen by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. For man cannot know what may happen to him. Like a fish caught in a net or a bird caught in a snare, he has no hint of what might befall him.” (Proverbs 9:11, 12)
Every fast runner or adept tennis player has a bad day on occasion and loses to a usually weaker competitor; and the strongest soldier can find himself in an indefensible position whereas his weaker comrade holds out against superior odds. Many in the business world see themselves as more competent than those who are promoted to positions above them. These are facts of life.
So, what of those who survived and those who didn’t? In secular terms, it was happenstance – “the luck of the draw.” “My number didn’t come up,” said those airmen who returned home after surviving flak and enemy fighters that brought death to others – sometimes to those standing right next to them. “He bought the farm” was one euphemism used by fighter pilots to soften the blow.
But if the reason for their survival was due to “time and chance” rather than divine intervention, then their survival was not really miraculous but circumstantial, and is therefore inexplicable. Does this explanation diminish the possibility that real miracles of protection do happen when Christians pray for God to preserve them? Not at all! In fact, it enhances that possibility, because in some cases the only satisfactory explanation for a person’s survival is that he or she must have been preserved by Divine intervention.
The question you need to ask yourself is: Will I face the uncertainties in life by placing my trust in Jesus, or will I entrust myself to what the Bible refers to as “time and chance” — which mothers would call Lady Luck. It’s your call, but it can only be one or the other – it cannot be both. “The best of luck!” is not in the same league as “I trust you, Lord Jesus!”