I love beginnings. Who doesn’t?

Everything is fresh, new, and shiny. Unaccustomed eyes are unwearied by expectation. Whether it’s a first love, the first time to hear a great song, the first time your toes dipped in the ocean, or the first time you tried a certain food – firsts can feel miraculous!

There was a restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA that was known for its incredible scallops. Palate pristine, the first time I ate them I exclaimed, “I am ontologically changed.” Life, when we really consider it, is a miraculous mystery. In his essay Miracles, C.S. Lewis notably claims, “Nature itself is not natural.” Still, there are some rare occurrences that cannot be explained by nature as we know it.

In our sermon series, we are looking at various firsts in the book of Acts. This week we’ll look specifically at Peter’s first miracle. This first did not just seem miraculous, but was, “…a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency” (Webster, of course).

Like all miracles, Peter’s was more than just a divinely inspired trick. On Sunday Patrick, Dean, and I, will be discussing a miracle’s capacity to teach us something deeper; to point far beyond itself. This miracle not only made a lame man’s slack legs become strong enough to leap, but the man – far beyond the capacity of a good plate of scallops – was changed. Join us this Sunday for more!

Love in Christ,
Amanda

P.S. Send me some of your “firsts” and I miss you all!