Miracles
Hashem is constantly performing daily miracles for us, but they are hidden from the unobserving and ungrateful eye. We, in our naiveté take them for granted...
If in times of danger Hashem openly displays His nissim – miracles – and protection of us, what about those times when we are not in danger, the so-called "normal" or "ordinary" times?
In normal times Hashem is actually performing daily nissim for us, the difference being that they are hidden. And we, in our naiveté are so used to them that we just accept them and don't even think about them.
We are really like those innocent children who because they are so used to missiles falling without causing any damage "understand" that they are harmless.
Hashem runs the world in two ways, with nissim glu'im (visible miracles), and nissim m'luvash b'tevah (miracles "dressed up" i.e. hidden in the guise of nature).
Let's just take a few examples of nissim hidden in the guise of "nature" that are in reality Hashem's "wonders of the world".
To start off with how is it possible that we take a few tiny seeds, throw them into the wet and mouldy dirt on the ground and leave them there. And after a while instead of those seeds rotting away they do the exact opposite and flourish and grow, until they poke their heads out of the ground. And even more amazingly they continue to grow further until they become…… flowers, vegetables, or even trees.
One minute I thought that anything that is buried in the ground rots and decays but that's not what happened at all! That seed had the ability to regenerate itself and develop; the dirt that we're forever in a hurry to sweep out of our houses and wash off our children and out of their clothes actually sustained those seeds and enabled them to mature and flourish.
How on earth did that happen? Well that's part of Hashem's daily hidden nissim but because we are so used to it we don't even see it.
And here's another example: what about all those babies that are continuously being born? How did they come into being in the first place, survive inside their mothers, and then make their way into this world? And as each baby is born, at exactly the right second it's mother's support system shuts off and its own support system opens and begins functioning perfectly. Each one of those facts alone is enough of a wonder to blow your mind.
And tell me how does that helpless newborn know to turn its head from side to side and open its mouth and feed from its mother or a bottle; it's certainly not been taught to do so and wouldn't understand if you did try to teach it.
And yet more, that helpless little infant grows bigger and bigger, sits up, stands, walks and talks and matures, all "naturally" of course, until within a few years he (or she) is a grown, mature adult.
And what enabled that infant to grow? Well those seeds that grew and matured in the dirty soil was fed to all those children as "food" and not only did they survive on it but they were actually nourished by it so that they were able to grow into mature adults.
If an alien (from planet Mars) who didn't know how "nature" works would look at all this he would be scratching his head in wonder. A tiny little thing (he's been told it's called a "seed") was thrown into the dirt and after a long time a green and brown pole with extensions (apparently called a "tree") appeared in its place. Odd round balls that were red in colour were hanging from that pole, or “tree”, and when that round ball was plucked off the tree there was this amazing food that could be eaten like it is, squeezed into juice, or baked into a pie. The earthlings called it “apple.” What an odd name to give that round thing?
And if you tell that alien that that queer-looking thing called an “apple”, together with loads of other "things" that have equally weird names are given to children to eat and it is these "things" that enable them to grow into adults he would look at you as if you had lost your senses and needed to be locked up in an institution. After all, where he comes from aliens are nourished and grow in a completely different way.
But you will say, the alien doesn't know how this world runs and we do – that's nature……… but in reality it's Hashem who has decided to run the world in this particular way; He could just as well have "decided" on some other method of us nurturing our young (like the birds do, dropping worms into their chicks' mouths); or He could even have made a baby completely self-sufficient. And even though something is repeated on a daily basis it is every bit as much a miracle as those miracles that we see occasionally, or that go "against nature".
It's Hashem's miracles that allow seeds to be sustained in the earth and grow into food which will be fed to babies enabling them to grow into adults. The question is though, why does Hashem hide his everyday nissim from us?
And the answer to that is: because Hashem wants us to have bechirah, free choice, to be able to choose whether we want to recognise what He does for us or not. For that reason the daily nissim are not "apparent" unless we choose to see them.
Hashem's hidden nissim can be likened to anything that is new or different. Any new phenomenon we see is a cause for wonder, like the first time we see a beautiful sunrise or sunset; but if we view that sunset on a daily basis, it loses its appeal and just becomes part of the surroundings.
Boruch Hashem that we are able to recognise and thank Hashem for the visible nissim, such as those we saw during the Gaza War in previous weeks. But let's train ourselves to recognise and appreciate the usual, orderly and natural nissim that are continuously taking place around us.
When we are aware of the many hidden nissim Hashem is continuously showering us with we will be able to serve Hashem as we should – and appreciate that beautiful ripe tomato for what it actually is.
Let's thank Hashem from the bottom of our hearts, "for Your nissim (that You perform) every day"; and let's not forget the biggest ness of all –
that Hashem is m'chadish b'tivoi bechol yom tomid ess ma'asseh bereishis – in His great kindness Hashem recreates His universe every day.
NOW THAT'S A REAL NESS FOR YOU!!
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