What Is Magic?

Picture this, you are sitting in a crowded room filled with all kinds of people standing together, holding their breath in suspense, every mind focused on what is happening at the front of the multitude. Suddenly the magician calls out for a volunteer, many hands go up, even some beside you, but only one is chosen; only one will become the subject of this latest deception of the mind. Quickly at first, the chosen one walks up to the head of the masses full of confidence and pride over being the one chosen out of many; but then, as he approaches the fringe he begins to slow, suddenly unsure of what it is that he has just signed up for. As the magician urges him to come ever more forward he becomes more and more aware of every eye in the room watching him. The magician places him in a box, tells him to lie very still, and closes the box over him. For him there is darkness, for those watching there is a show which boggles the mind. The magician calls on his assistants and proceeds to place knives of every variety into the box at all sorts of contorted angles, there is a gasp from those gathered, all goes silent and with one word the magician calls out to the unfortunate volunteer to get up out of the box, seconds that seem like lifetimes go by, and suddenly the chosen one emerges unscathed and full of excitement, the crowd cheers wildly at the display of impossibility. This is magic. Or at least, this is the deception that many would consider “magic”.

But what is “magic”?

The world would describe it as a conjuring of tricks, illusions that make things which would seem utterly impossible come to be reality. For many, it is mere entertainment, something with which to exercise the mind in hopes of deciphering the lie that makes your mind see something that simply cannot be. Others would claim it as a supernatural power, something which gives the one who wields it control over a given subject. It is that which makes impossible things seem possible.

As much as catching a speeding bullet between one’s teeth may be entertaining the first few times until you discover the trickery behind it, I believe there are things in this world which are magical no matter how many times they are encountered. Things which take your breath away, things that make you stop dead in your tracks to pay full attention, things which really have no way to be described.

I believe there is magic in every sunset and every sunrise, as that first ray of light reaches out from behind any obstacle which would dare stand in its way, as it chases away the darkness and leaves a warm embrace around all that it touches. I believe there is magic in every rainy sky, as thunder shakes the very ground you stand on, and electricity in its freest form shoots through the open expanses above, as the rain is unleashed to clean away the dust and make the world fresh. I believe there is magic in a gentle breeze that makes you breathe so deep and so long you don’t want it to end. There is magic in the songs that the birds sing all day long, sung to the creator of all. There is magic in every life you see on any day. Magic happens on mountain tops where the view stretches farther than any eye can see. I hear magic as the wind rustles the leaves high in the treetops when the sun is setting and there is a faint sliver of gold along the highest branches. For me, magic is in the little things. In smiles and laughter, in tears, in friendships, and in forgiveness. But the most important thing about truly magical moments is that they have but one source, and He is the Lord of all, the King of kings the heavenly Father. He made it all. He brought into existence those things which science can only explain as mere chance, coincidence, or luck. He did the impossible.

Above all else, I know there is magic of the greatest kind when a person gives their life completely over to Christ. When surrender, complete in every way, becomes the way of life for one devoted to living for the author and creator of everything. When we choose to follow what it is that God has planned for us, he opens doors we would never have known existed, and he shows us love that is unfathomable. When we choose to live that life, our life, we choose to live it in the fullest sense. That is when magic happens, and that is the show of the true master and the bravest of volunteers, and as every eye in the crowd watches, more and more will become volunteers of life. Choosing to live that same full life.

Yet, as those eyes are ever on the children of God, it is of the utmost importance that we continue to live according to the truths we have become assured of. To be examples as the “light” in the world. Brother’s and sisters, I encourage you to see the magic in all that is around you, and to live in a way that shows the workmanship of the one true magician. The Lord, Jesus Christ. For as it is written: “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20). That, the ability to seek God in what He has made, is what makes the best of moments in this life “magical” not that they are tricks of the mind, or clever deception, but that they are unfathomable, unexplainable, unimaginable, seemingly impossible, yet very, very real.

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19) – Let us go and show the world with our actions and by the love of Christ in us that we are sons and daughters of God.