Recently my cousin received a kidney transplant. His kidneys had not functioned well for years but it finally came to the place where he needed dialysis. He sent a letter out letting people know he needed a kidney and many people volunteered to be a donor. Unfortunately everyone was rejected for one reason or another. Finally, he transferred to another transplant center and they began the process  of reassessing his potential donors After a while, a new doctor thought he found the right match. It was my cousin’s wife who had been the first donor on the list, but had been rejected because of her allergies. Within a month, they were both in the hospital awaiting surgery. Both surgeries went well and they were both out of the hospital within a week.

I had prayed for my cousin for years, first to be healed by God of his kidney disease and then to find a donor that would be a match. I was hoping for instant miracle, one where God just touched him and his kidneys were healed. Instead he received a different kind of miracle, the kind where God used frail human beings to enact his will and bring healing through the medical process.

So I had to ask myself, “Which is the greater miracle” An instant healing performed with God’s dunamis power or one where He brought a new doctor to a new transplant center who was willing to accept a donor that had been previously rejected?” Both are miracles, but we stand amazed that when it seemed there was no answer that God brought one by human means.

I’ve come to the conclusion that however God works to provide an answer to prayer fits in the realm of the miraculous. Using a human to meet a need may not seem as spectacular as a miraculous healing, but the person used by God is as big as miracle as God showing up Himself to meet the need.