The God Who Made Nature Can Rule It
Month 7: The Miracle Worker · Why We Believe
Today's Scripture
Read together: Colossians 1:16-17 & Psalm 89:8-9
16 For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. — Colossians 1:16-17
8 O LORD God of Hosts, who is like You? O mighty LORD, Your faithfulness surrounds You. 9 You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them. — Psalm 89:8-9
Memory Verse
“Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?””— Mark 4:41 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Psalms 139-141
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 190 of 365 — "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me" — the God who knows you also rules the storm.)The Heart of It
Sometimes people say, "Miracles are impossible. They break the laws of nature." But stop and think about who made the laws of nature in the first place. Paul writes that by Jesus "all things were created... and in Him all things consist" (). That last word, "consist," means hold together. Jesus isn't just the One who built the universe long ago and then walked away. He is the One actively holding every atom, every wave, and every gust of wind in place right now. So when Jesus calmed the storm, He wasn't breaking the laws of nature like a thief breaking a window. He was the Author of those laws, and He simply wrote a new sentence into His own story. The composer who wrote the symphony is allowed to change a note. That's not a contradiction. It's authority.
This is why the Bible never treats a miracle as embarrassing or far-fetched. The same God who set the boundaries of the sea () is fully able to still it. The real question was never "Can the laws of nature be overruled?" It was "Is there Someone over the laws of nature?" The whole Bible gives one answer, and the disciples discovered it in the boat. Yes. There is a Person who upholds all things by the word of His power (). If that Person exists, then a calmed storm isn't strange at all. It's exactly what you'd expect when the Maker steps into His own creation. We don't believe in miracles because we're gullible. We believe because we know the One who made and holds the world. And for Him, calming a storm is no harder than speaking.
Around the Table
Jesus made the wind and the waves, so of course they listen to Him! It's like how you listen to Mom and Dad, because we're the grown-ups who take care of you.
Let's do it: Build a quick tower of blocks. You made it, so you get to move it. "The one who makes it gets to be in charge of it!"
A miracle isn't God breaking the rules. God made the rules, and He's allowed to do something special whenever He wants. He's like an author writing a surprise into his own story.
Let's talk: If you wrote a story, could you make anything happen in it? How is that like God and His world?
Skeptics say miracles "violate" natural law. But natural law only describes how God normally upholds creation (). The Lawgiver isn't trapped by His own habits. He can act freely within what He made.
Let's go deeper: Why does believing in a Creator make believing in miracles reasonable instead of silly?
💬 Conversation Starter
If you invented a brand-new board game, who gets to decide the rules? And who gets to change them? How is God like that with the universe?
🛡️ Defending the Faith
When someone says, "Miracles are impossible. They break the laws of nature," answer kindly and confidently: That objection assumes nature is a closed box with no one outside it. But if a Creator made nature (), then the "laws" are just His regular way of running it. And He's free to act differently when He chooses. A miracle isn't a broken law. It's the Lawgiver doing something on purpose. The real question isn't "Can the laws bend?" It's "Is there Someone over them?" The disciples met Him in a boat. "Even the wind and the sea obey Him" (). You can't rule out miracles unless you first prove there's no God. And that's a much bigger claim than the miracle itself.
For Dad · Go Deeper
The objection that miracles are "impossible" usually hides an unproven assumption. It's called philosophical naturalism, the belief that nature is all there is. But that's a faith claim, not a scientific finding. No experiment can show that nothing exists beyond nature. Once you grant a Creator, the whole objection collapses, because the bigger miracle has already happened. He made everything out of nothing. As C.S. Lewis put it, if you admit a God, "you must admit that He could play any tune He pleased on the strings of His own creation." Augustine made the same point centuries earlier. A miracle is not against nature. It's only against what we know of nature. God orders the world more deeply than we understand. Help your older children see that the miracle debate is really a debate about God's existence, fought one round earlier. If God is real, miracles aren't a problem to explain away. They're a signature to read. Teach them to ask the deeper question gently, and the storm-stilling Christ becomes not an embarrassment but exactly the kind of thing the Creator would do.
Draws on: C.S. Lewis, Miracles; Augustine, City of God (Book 21).
Let's Pray Together
"Father, You made everything, and You hold everything together, even the storms. Thank You that nothing is too hard for You. Help us trust the Maker who is bigger than His world. And help us never doubt that You can do what You promise. In Jesus' name, amen."
The God who made the rules of nature is free to rule over them. So I can trust His power.