A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers  

Luke 1:37, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible.” Craig Brian Larson from Preaching Today shares the following story: The doctor said, “If you are a believer in miracles, this would be one.” The doctor was talking about Alcides Moreno. By every law of physics and medicine, Moreno should have died. Moreno was a window washer in Manhattan. He rode platforms with his brother Edgar high into the sky to wash skyscrapers. From there he could look down to see the pavement far below where the people looked like ants. On December 7, 2007, catastrophe struck the Moreno family; as the brothers worked on the forty-seventh story of a high-rise, their platform collapsed, and Alcides and Edgar fell from the sky. No, Alcides Moreno didn’t land on a passing airplane or catch his shirt on a flagpole or have anything else amazing happen like you see in the movies; he fell the entire forty-seven stories to the pavement below. Sadly his brother Edgar died from the fall, but somehow Alcides did not. He lived. For two weeks he hung on to life by a thread. Then, suddenly one day, he spoke and reached out to touch his nurse’s face. One month later, the doctors were saying that he would probably walk again some day. Alcides Moreno experienced a miracle. As grand as his miracle was, we must understand that miracles occur every day. We may not fall forty-seven stories onto concrete pavement and survive, but God graces our world each day with unexpected possibilities in the face of impossibilities. Time and time again we see ourselves or our loved ones beat the odds of a cruel disease in the face of a bleak prognosis, or an unexpected financial blessing appear in the face of dire straits, or circumstances suddenly change to turn a problem that seems impossible, into one where the answer becomes clear. Look carefully around you today. Like the Blessed Virgin Mary did 2 millennia ago as announced by the angel in our text today, you will find a God who still works miracles for this and each new day.

Source: Craig Brian Larson, “Window Washer Falls 47 Stories, Survives,” PreachingToday.com; “It Wasn’t All Bad,” The Week (January 18, 2008)