Today in Bible class (I teach grade 3/4 in a Christian school), we began a series of lessons on Jesus' miracles. Following the suggestion in the teacher's guide for the curriculum, I conducted an object lesson to talk about this subject.
What I did was take a glass jar with a smallish opening and place some shredded paper (not a lot) inside. Next, I lit a match and placed it inside the jar and placed a hard boiled egg on top of the opening (the jar opening is smaller than the egg). Within moments, the egg was sucked inside the jar! The kids were totally amazed and in awe of what happened. I told them that I had performed a miracle. And they thought I was cool.
Once the actual lesson began, we talked about Jesus and his miracle of turning the water into wine (His first miracle). We talked about how the egg experiment is not actually a miracle because it can be explained with science. You see, fire needs oxygen to burn, and with the egg on top of the bottle opening, it soon prevents oxygen from entering the bottle, and the flame goes out. And, due to the vacuum effect produced in the process, the egg is sucked into the bottle.
The thing with Jesus' miracles, however, is that they can NOT be explained with science. A miracle is a supernatural occurrence, and there is nothing that can explain how they occur. How can you explain water turning into wine? How can you explain spitting in dirt, applying that to a blind man's eyes, which causes him to be able to see?
You can't. That's why it's a miracle.
After my explanation at the end of class, I highly doubt the kids thought I was cool since I hadn't actually performed a miracle for them. I'm sure if I could perform miracles, the kids would probably ask for no school and no homework forever (or something similar). Poor kids, they'll just have to suffer with having to go to school - and having homework.
Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Have you performed a miracle? If so, what was it?
