The "God who can be explained away"

I'm starting to notice a common theme with all my posts, along with some other situations I have faced. Maybe I shouldn't limit this book to God's practicality, although that is what it is many times. However, I've noticed that many of these situations can be easily "explained away", without even allowing God to enter the picture.

How about my roofing style as mentioned in my first post. I can hear my critics now, "It wasn't God, you dufus! You simply realized a new method of shingling as you "accidentally" started differently than you usually do! It wasn't God!"

Or what of the lawyer fees and down payment money? "That wasn't God either, you fanatic! The tax money came because the government owed it to you! The lawyer decided to charge you $700 because that's what she needed! It was just coincidence! Not a miracle!"

And don't forget the little stuff! "Sheesh, calm down preacher man! You got that laminate because someone had no more use for it, and you happened to be in the right place at the right time to receive it. Could've happened to anyone! Where's the miracle in that? Dreamer."

Accidents. Coincidences. Chances. These are the arguments that can be used to explain away God's actions. It wasn't God, it was a big BANG, right? It JUST happened, no miracle.

I have another recent example of God's "quiet", explainable ways. My mother-in-law went to the doctor and they found two lumps each the size of a quarter in her breast. Being that she's a nurse, the regular statements such as "Could you please come in right away? We just want to check a few things." didn't quite set her at ease. In fact, we were all very worried. And the fact that they wouldn't wait more than a day to see her again meant this was serious! We all prayed, but it was hard to be joyful when you are faced with such a great unknown. Suddenly, horrible thoughts parade through your mind. You are faced with the great blackness of uncertainty. What will happen? How far along might this be? Is it too late?

Finally, she went into another appointment. This one was to take samples for testing to see if these were cancerous. But they couldn't find a single lump. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.

Say what? Nope! Nothing there! Sorry for the inconvenience, but you can go home now. See ya later!

Wow. Now THAT's a miracle! Did we pray for healing? No, not really, but we did pray for God's will. And this was obviously his will. We may never know his purposes in this whole thing, but we know that he was watching over her.

"WAIT, stop just one minute! I've had enough!" scream my critics, "You are so quick to jump on the "miracle band wagon", think about this! The doctors probably made a huge mistake. Maybe they had too much coffee that morning, or maybe not enough! God didn't 'miracolously' make the lumps disappear, they weren't there in the first place. Sheesh. Calm down already."

It was just a mistake. Or an accident. Or a coincidence. Or it just happened.

Can God really be explained away like that? Why would He perform a miracle if we humans in our limited minds could just explain it away as something other than God? Why wouldn't he make it so it couldn't be expained in any other way but by God?

Where is the faith in that? Where is the hope? Where is the choice?

The God who we explain away. The God that can be missed. Maybe that's what I should title this book.