Real Magic: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts

If we live within centuries of a sea parting, or the whole world flooding, or someone being turned into salt by God, our inherent and inherited belief system is amazing in that we really believe stuff like that can happen. So when Jesus comes later and says believe and be healed, we know we already believe, and so we are healed.

Now, a couple of thousand years passes and we live in a world of science and technology, and magic is stuff like cloning sheep, and virtual reality, and seedless watermelon. But it’s also the world of near death experiences, past life regressions, and being able to heal yourself. Why do some of us have a hard time believing the natural magic over the tinkerings of science? 

If we limit our beliefs, don’t we only limit ourselves? Seems there is a large spectrum of believing, but only the upper limits have the “gold.” Man cloning sheep pales in comparison to God creating man and endowing him with the natural ability to heal himself.

Where else is the real magic happening today? And does it even matter, because if we experienced it, how many of us would immediately doubt it, ruining our very own surprise party (that the magic is real). The most recent “real” magic for many kids was Harry Potter. And if they didn't have anything else that they believed in to that degree, thank God they were at least instilled at a young, impressionable age, with the belief in powerful magic. Doesn’t matter that it’s fictional, it matters that the foundation of believing was laid. 

Do you have a magical foundation of belief? What is it for you? Did Raiders of the Lost Ark do it for anyone? Mine happened in a book of all things, because I never used to read. I was about 8 years old, out of school for the day because of another ear infection, and after the doctors my mom took me across the street to the Smithtown Public Library for a used book sale. She found me a Reader’s Digest special edition that looked interesting: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts. I think it cost a nickel. 

I dug pretty deep into this book, and on page 382 I read for the very first time about Padre Pio, The Miraculous Monk; never really leaving a small Italian town, yet appearing to people worldwide, comforting and healing them; I believed it ALL. And by God’s grace, I never let that level of believing go; it has made all the difference in my life. Would you like to be someone who just believes somewhere on a spectrum, or someone who climbs up out of the spectrum and knows? Seek to know! All God’s powerful magic…it’s real; and the more you believe in it, the more you can grow and heal from it.