Consistently, I expect the miraculous to feel, well, miraculous. But life has taught me that that is rarely true. In the moment, we certainly may feel ecstasy, but if we mistake ecstasy for the miraculous, when it wears off we end up feeling lost. I remember on Christmas when I was about seven. I got tons of toys and had a great Christmas day, ecstatic from all the fun. A couple of days later, I was sitting on my bed, examining my loot, and I realized I felt bored. Even then I was asking myself, “What is wrong with me? Why didn’t the thankfulness and joy last?” As I have grown older, far more miraculous experiences have come and gone. Our wedding day was miraculous, but even in the moment, it felt surely real. You wait your whole life for a moment, and when you arrive, it’s everything you imagined except real. I remember a great deal that did not feel miraculous at all. A last-minute run to the store to pick up the cake. Standing under the beating sun in a tuxedo. Feeling tired from lack of sleep the night before. Getting cranky with someone who was rude in traffic. Even during the ceremony, I remember trying to hold my face a certain way. Trying to remember my vows. All of the beauty was set, like a gemstone right in the middle of real life. Years later, when we began having children, the miraculous once again intertwined with reality. Standing there, waiting for my children to be born, and still, hunger, tiredness, and discomfort all feel very real. Even in the midst of the ecstatic joy of a child being brought into the world, the reality of the world we live in is palpable. Blood and cries and tears intermingle with hospital gowns, shaved ice, and beeping heart monitors as the miraculous and the mundane intertwine.

As we walk with Jesus, it is easy to miss the miraculous that is right in front of us because it is in the setting of the mundane. At my baptism, I remember the cold of the water and the discomfort of being in front of so many people. I remember my first time raising my hands in worship, both the beauty of the moment and the growing discomfort of holding my arms up. When I have felt prompted to pray for a stranger, the embarrassment of doing something out of the ordinary is like a wet blanket. There is the ecstasy of doing something with Jesus, but it is happening in the real world. Often afterward, because of the pure mundaneness of the world around us, we can question whether an event ever happened.

The miraculous nearly always feels mundane is also an important interpretive lens as we read the Bible. Too often we portray Biblical stories charged with unrealistic expectations. In many cases, the events are foreign to us and our expectations of the miraculous are ungrounded by the reality of the mundane. When Peter walked on water, it was cold, wet, and scary, and immediately afterwards the discomfort of the boat seat and pangs of hunger probably made him question whether the event ever happened. At the feeding of the five thousand, everyone ate bread and fish, and then simply walked home. At the Red Sea, Israelites probably got pebbles in their sandals while walking across. What happens when we fail to display the miraculous in its mundane setting is that we can begin to feel that our lives are so far removed from the miraculous that maybe it is all just pretended fancy.

I love Frank Peretti’s books, “This Present Darkness,” and “Piercing the Darkness.” His characters are very real and live in the same mundane world that we live in. But he peels back the veil and shows that nothing that is happening is really mundane at all. As he weaves the tale, the spiritual world is interwoven into the fabric of daily life. In this, he captures a truth that we as Christians would do well to take hold of.

Imagination is key as we learn to see the miraculous beautifully set in the mundane. There are many examples of Biblical authors using poetic imagination to make spiritual realities visible. Psalm 34 comes to mind as a great example. Let’s look at the events and then consider them in light of Psalm 34, which tells us it was written at the time.

10 David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Didn’t they sing to one another about him in dances, saying,
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 He changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?”
David therefore departed from there and escaped to Adullam’s cave. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.
1 Samuel 21:10-22:1

When we read this story, we find David at a low point. He is fleeing from Saul and is now in the land of Israel’s enemies. He is recognized and only escapes by pretending to be insane. In the gates of the city, surrounded by elders and merchants, David throws a convulsive fit and allows his spit to run into his beard as he scrapes the gate with his fingernails. All the while driven by fear of the king of Gath. Yet, David looks back on the event and sees the truth of God’s presence the whole time.

1 † I will bless Yahweh at all times.
His praise will always be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall boast in Yahweh.
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
3 Oh magnify Yahweh with me.
Let’s exalt his name together.
4 I sought Yahweh, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to him, and were radiant.
Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
6 This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him,
and delivers them.
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good.
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:1-8

David has pulled back the veil and seen the miraculous set beautifully within the mundane. Look at these verses and compare them. “My soul shall boast in Yahweh”, “ “He answered me and delivered me from all my fears”, verses, “David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.” Their faces shall never be covered with shame”, and “Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” verses, “13 He changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard”. In many ways, this Psalm and story could seem unrelated, but it is through the poetic imagination of David that we see that God was in the story the whole time.

In many of the prophecies themselves, God uses the same tool through the mouths and pens of the prophets. Poetic imagination has the ability to pull back the veil and reveal truth in a way that no mere explanation or graph can.

On Mother’s Day last year, Alyssa and I were scheduled to lead worship at Church. Practice had been really tough with our four kids around. It seemed like every time we tried, we were interrupted. However, we both knew it was something we needed to do. The morning of, as we were walking out the door, our second oldest barfed all over the place. At that moment my wife nearly gave up. But we cleaned up the mess and headed to Church, allowing her to stay home. The practice that morning was really choppy, and we had trouble getting the right copies printed. As worship was just about to start my string broke. I had to switch instruments. Worship was good, church finished, and we headed home. In a moment of solitude, I penned the following poem for her, and I believe it peels back the veil on our morning.

When She Sings, Hell Trembles

We set the songs before our face,
and seek to enter His holy space
She feels weak, even frail,
as our hearts touch the veil
The enemy trembles, he shakes, he groans
A queen is coming, she is coming home

It’s the morning for worship, we need to be going
Our daughter is crying, her stomach throwing
Her mother is worried, she fights feeling guilt
The enemy striving to cause her to wilt
She walks out the door, her eyes straight ahead
No power can grasp her from the land of the dead

She is on a mission, she walks with her Lord
He has called her queen, he is walking her forward
It’s worship practice, the music’s a mess
The enemy fights, he wants her to stress
She composes herself with a breath and a prayer
The enemy quivers as her lungs fill with air

A string breaks, there is a last-minute change
A queen stands straight, firmly planted in grace
The first chords begin to play
A daughter of the king, she has won the day
She opens her mouth, and releases a song
Hell trembles as the angels sing along

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord on high
A queen stands, all Hell to defy
A priestess walks up the mountain alone
As thunder and lightning rupture the stones
She is His, a piece of His temple
When she sings, Hell does tremble

Who can know, why she fills Hell with fear
She seems so gentle, a graceful deer
But when she steps into her call
The powers that oppose cannot but fall
Sing gently O sing out your song
We and the angels will sing along

There is a great deal I could say about this poem and about my awesome wife. The reason I am sharing this poem is to say that as we learn to read the Bible with its poetic imagination, we gain the ability to see the world around us through Christ’s reality. Poetic imagination colors our life with meaning and truth.