Sometimes It’s Real
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. – Acts 12:5-9 NKJV.
How many times have we heard of fake grenades being discovered and the bomb squad being called in to check it out? More times than we can count. Just four days ago a fake grenade was found in Times Square by an Uber driver causing a scare. Five days ago, a man was taken into custody in West Park, Florida for causing a scare having a fake grenade. Last year a fake grenade caused a scare in Lakewood, New Jersey when the grenade was found strapped to a utility pole. Sometime back a fake grenade was found in luggage at Newark Airport. Countless other times fake grenades have been found and caused a scare and police departments have to respond.
Sadly, sometimes the grenade is real that is found and actually explodes. Last year an Indiana man and his two older children were looking through his grandfather’s belongings when a grenade was found. Apparently one of them pulled the pin and it exploded killing the man and injuring his two kids. The boy was 14 years old, and the woman was 18 years old that were injured by shrapnel. Many soldiers have brought home souvenirs from war not knowing how dangerous they might be to family members and others in the future.
King Herod had thrown the apostle Peter into prison, but God sent an angel to free him. At first Peter thought that it was just a dream, or a vision, but it was very real. Those of the church that had been in constant prayer for Peter could not believe it could be true at first either. It was true! Peter had been miraculously freed!
We often hear of miraculous things occurring but try to explain them in human terms when it is actually a miracle that has occurred. How many times have we heard of someone having been told that they have a tumor or some other dreadful thing but a week or so later it is no longer there. We explain it away by saying the first Xray or CT scan must have been a mistake in some way. Or, we narrowly miss being in a terrible traffic accident, but somehow, we avoid it.
Sometimes miracles actually happen, sometimes it’s real, and I suspect that they occur much more frequently than we normally think. So, let us be sure to give the glory to God instead of man when these miracles happen.