Miracle Butterfly?

[nebula]

Candice -

If that had been you, would you be thanking God for the butterfly being there or would you be thanking a "freak of nature"?

[Fraught]

If you're looking for evidence of God's hand in this, you're not going to find it.

I was just probing for why people believe this was an act of God.

That question's been answered several times over.

Perhaps you would like to tell us why you believe it isn't. Yeah I know you haven't stated such, but you're the only one in this thread who questions it.

I don't see any concrete evidence, which you stated above I would not find .

I come from a household which flippantly attributed things to God before they had any concrete evidence to do so. My mother was able to get my youngest sister into a catholic private school that ran a church service each friday, and she swore black and blue it was the hand of God. A few weeks later when she realised that my sister was hanging in a group of drug-fueled rich kids, she suddenly changed her mind and it wasn't the hand of God, but the enemy. At first it seemed all rosey and appropriate to label it as a work of God, but it wasn't so.

I also came from a hyper pentecostal church that did similar things, claiming things were of God too flippantly, only to later realise that what they claimed wasn't right. Like a woman claiming that God caused her car to break down so she would meet a particular man, only to later find out he was abusive and deceitful.

The same goes with the butterfly. It all seems good, but I have no evidence yet that it was the hand of God, it could still have been a fluke, it could have been God. It is great what happened, a good thing, but I will hold off concluding the answer to this thread in the positive just yet.

I think God has used the story to make people think on Him, that is clearly seen in this thread and in the media, just as He has used the entire rescue situation to draw people to think on Him (Ro 8:28). I will be thankful for that.

You've got a point. I think the same when i hear football players or golfers thanking God for their great game and i, too, know a lot of people who invoke the name of God in circumstances like those you listed above. I just think it cheapens the whole thing and i believe that's what you are getting at. it doesn't impress any nonbelievers that a white butterfly saved 2 miners' lives. God's Word is yet living and active. Period! We don't need to look for affirmations in every corner to prove it.

[Guest man]

I don't see any concrete evidence, which you stated above I would not find .

John 20

27 Then He said to Thomas,

[LeonaS]

I believe that, even if it was not of God, it was of God. If you get what I mean.

[~candice~]

I don't see any concrete evidence, which you stated above I would not find .

John 20

27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Very good, now go and put it in context .

[~candice~]

If you're looking for evidence of God's hand in this, you're not going to find it.

I was just probing for why people believe this was an act of God.

That question's been answered several times over.

Perhaps you would like to tell us why you believe it isn't. Yeah I know you haven't stated such, but you're the only one in this thread who questions it.

I don't see any concrete evidence, which you stated above I would not find .

I come from a household which flippantly attributed things to God before they had any concrete evidence to do so. My mother was able to get my youngest sister into a catholic private school that ran a church service each friday, and she swore black and blue it was the hand of God. A few weeks later when she realised that my sister was hanging in a group of drug-fueled rich kids, she suddenly changed her mind and it wasn't the hand of God, but the enemy. At first it seemed all rosey and appropriate to label it as a work of God, but it wasn't so.

I also came from a hyper pentecostal church that did similar things, claiming things were of God too flippantly, only to later realise that what they claimed wasn't right. Like a woman claiming that God caused her car to break down so she would meet a particular man, only to later find out he was abusive and deceitful.

The same goes with the butterfly. It all seems good, but I have no evidence yet that it was the hand of God, it could still have been a fluke, it could have been God. It is great what happened, a good thing, but I will hold off concluding the answer to this thread in the positive just yet.

I think God has used the story to make people think on Him, that is clearly seen in this thread and in the media, just as He has used the entire rescue situation to draw people to think on Him (Ro 8:28). I will be thankful for that.

You've got a point. I think the same when i hear football players or golfers thanking God for their great game and i, too, know a lot of people who invoke the name of God in circumstances like those you listed above. I just think it cheapens the whole thing and i believe that's what you are getting at. it doesn't impress any nonbelievers that a white butterfly saved 2 miners' lives. God's Word is yet living and active. Period! We don't need to look for affirmations in every corner to prove it.

Yes the football players are a good example.

Thank God for the win, but don't attribute it to God unless you have a reason to do so. That's what I'm doing with the butterfly, thanking Him that lives were spared and leaving it at that.

[~candice~]

Candice -

If that had been you, would you be thanking God for the butterfly being there or would you be thanking a "freak of nature"?

I would have been thanking God that the miners didn't die, but I don't really need to answer the question "was that a miracle or not". I have seen too many fakes to jump on that bandwagon too quickly.

[nebula]

Candice -

If that had been you, would you be thanking God for the butterfly being there or would you be thanking a "freak of nature"?

I would have been thanking God that the miners didn't die, but I don't really need to answer the question "was that a miracle or not". I have seen too many fakes to jump on that bandwagon too quickly.

No, what I meant was if that was you in the mind, getting distracted by the butterfly and because of it were not where the collapse took place a head of you - would you be thanking God for that butterfly?

[nebula]

it doesn't impress any nonbelievers that a white butterfly saved 2 miners' lives.

So?

How many of them did it impress to see the miner fall to his knees?

God's Word is yet living and active. Period! We don't need to look for affirmations in every corner to prove it.

And that "proves" miracles don't happen?

[nebula]

Here is my take to my own question - "What if you were one of the miners...?"

If I had been one of the two miners, I would be thanking the Lord for that butterfly! I might even be thanking Him for sending the butterfly, or causing it to be there at just the right spot at just the right time.

If someone were to challenge me on that, I would respond that Scripture tells us to "Give thanks in all circumstances," and if I can't thank the Lord for good things or when good things happen, how can I find the strength to thank Him in the bad?

Now if you want to thank a fluke of nature for the distraction that had saved my life, go ahead. But I will thank my God who rules and reigns over all!

~~~~~~~~~~~

As far as attributing to God things that turned out horrible, I can appreciate the concern. But remember who it was that told Samuel to anoint Saul as king.

Sometimes the Lord grants us our prayer requests even though the end result is not what we were expecting it to be. Other times . . . well, we could get into the whole God's sovereignty debate on who are what is or is not responsible for things that go bad - God? Satan? God just let circumstances run their course apart from Him?

So, did God send or cause the butterfly to be there. Unless we hear directly from Him, sure our natural minds will never know. But how can you be thankful for their lives being spared without acknowledging the elements that caused their lives to be spared - including being distracted by something they never expected to see that far down the mine?

So whether the Lord put the butterfly there or not, I thank Him that it was there - at just the right place, at just the right time.

~~~~

One more thought -

What if the occurrence with the butterfly gave these men, and perhaps the other miners and the families, an added faith that the Lord would see them through this? (i.e. If He sent a butterfly to spare our lives, He'll bring us out in the end.)