The last time there was a miracle birth, a bright shining star appeared in the firmament and led some shepherds to where the miracle baby was lying. That was over 2,000 years ago and the miracle baby turned out to be the fulcrum of Christendom, Jesus Christ, upon whose name those who say they perform miracles bank.
The other recorded one was when a woman past her child-bearing age, Sarah, the wife of Abraham received a pledge from God that even at her advanced age, she would give birth. She did and the baby turned out to be the father of the nation of Israel.
Today, even as Archbishop Gilbert Deya tries to convince everyone that he can perform miracles on menopausal women, there are no bright stars heralding the births and there is no significance, at least in strictly Christian terms, on the babies so born.
Do miracles occur in this day and age? This is a debatable matter. There have been cases where doctors have talked about patients being healed after being prayed for. In such cases they have looked for a connection between the recovery and the medicine administered and found none. They say that only one word can describe such an occurrence and that word is miracle.
Yet they also acknowledge that miracles occur within certain practical realms. For instance, prayers may lead to some cure, but the patient must meet God halfway for a miracle to occur. Quite practically, you cannot leave the door of the plane open and pray to God for a miracle so that you do not fall. Christians say that with God, everything is possible. Quite true.
But Deya’s miracles tax the imagination. A woman giving birth to 13 children in three years is not only unbelievable but quite plainly impractical, absurd even. This is a concatenation of births. Human beings do not give birth in litters and there is a definite biological process that takes place. The baby must be carried to term-nine months, and must have something in the DNA that links it to the parents. According to the DNA tests performed on at least one of those who now claim to have given birth miraculously, there is no link. Let’s face the facts. Miracles do not enact themselves outside of the temporal experience. They respect the order of nature as created by God. They use the existing parameters as their agents. Even Jesus had to use water as the agent for the transformation to wine. And a hen can, quite plainly, not give birth to a calf.
Thus, Deya’s assertion negates the natural order of things as made by the Creator and arrogates to man the power to disrupt nature. For his name and claim to stand the test of time let him submit those miracle babies to DNA tests and let them be born in reputable hospitals where doctors can really ascertain that they are in deed miracle babies. The name of the Lord will then be praised without reservations and Deya will be the greatest prophet and miracle worker in modern times.