Miracles of the Maltese variety

Doug Mendenhall, who serves up Soul Food every week for The Huntsville Times in Alabama, is watching out for miracles of the Maltese variety:

The built-in drama of a shipwreck has fueled many a ripping, gripping tale, including "Robinson Crusoe," "The Swiss Family Robinson," "Kidnapped," "Pinocchio," "The Odyssey" and "Titanic," to name a few. A good shipwreck has danger, death, heroism, fortitude, despair and changes of fortune, all packed into a few pages that set the course of the remainder of the novel. Another good example is lost in the midst of all of the sermons, missions, healings and ecumenical discussions associated with the biblical book known as The Acts of the Apostles..

In the wild winter weather of the Mediterranean, an ancient boat is driven blindly hundreds of miles from Crete to Malta, then smashed on the rocks but with no loss of life. It's a major miracle, right up there with the better known miracles of Acts, such as an angel-aided escape from prison or the dramatic healing of a crippled man.

I don't know why the Maltese shipwreck doesn't get the sermons and aura of some of these other amazing stories of the early church. I don't know why we don't talk about it much. Maybe it's because it's a different kind of miracle, one that you could almost believe Paul and his traveling companions pulled off without any help from God. Maybe they were just lucky. Maybe the captain was just a great seaman. Maybe the whole scene wasn't quite as bad as it sounds.

Or maybe it's because it wasn't easy. The participants in this miracle got wet and scared. They had to work hard to crawl onto dry land, some of them hanging to bits of wreckage. The miraculous healing of the crippled beggar, in contrast, is much tidier - Peter speaks a couple of sentences, grabs the guy's hand and pulls him to his feet for dancing and whooping.

That's the kind of miracle I'd prefer. With a new year starting, though, it may be that I need a couple of reminders...Sometimes the miracles I witness will be of the Maltese variety. I may feel like I've been dragged through the rocky surf, but I will not drown. In saying this, I'm not belittling the power of the Almighty. I'm just reminding you that he's capable of saving you and testing you all at once. I don't have the prophetic power or premonitions of Paul, but 2009 looks to me like a good year for Maltese miracles.