The Louisville Winter Family Weekend is well-known among United Church of God teens for its wide variety of activities. Young people who attend often play sports such as basketball, volleyball and football. There are also seminars to attend and dances and other social events for meeting others. The variety of things to do is amazing.

Never in a million years would I have guessed that Dumpster diving would become one such activity for me.

And yet, there I was, hurriedly digging through the Dumpster behind the Clarion Hotel. I suppose such a scene requires a bit of an explanation, so here goes:

I like to draw. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, though it wasn't until recently that I've gotten any good at it. At any rate, I have this binder where I put all the drawings I'm really proud of—a portfolio, I guess you could call it.

Lost forever?

I took this binder to Louisville, Kentucky, for the annual winter weekend and made the mistake of forgetting it at the Family Fun Fair. The next day, after realizing it was missing, I started frantically searching for it, but had no luck. It held five years' worth of my artistic work, and, despite my prayers, I was sure that I'd lost it forever.

Thankfully, my story doesn't end there. One of my friends had the bright idea of actually asking the hotel staff if they'd seen my binder, and it quickly became "good news, bad news" time. The good news? They definitely remembered seeing a black binder. The bad news? They definitely remembered throwing that binder into the trash.

So with my binder currently making its residence in our hotel's Dumpster, I set out with a band of friends to retrieve it. It was by no means an easy task. The binder had been thrown out early that morning, and it was now mid-afternoon. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say it was one of the grossest undertakings I'd ever been involved in.

Truth be told, I almost gave up. Were it not for the resolve of a friend who was busy digging in the Dumpster beside me, I would have stopped. But his determination kept me going, and together we diligently rooted through trash bag after trash bag until we finally came to the one that held my binder. Without his help, I seriously doubt that I would have gotten it back—so if you're reading this, thanks again and I owe you one.

A miracle!

Anyway, right after we found it, a few more of my friends came around the corner and told us they'd been praying that we'd find it. It was then that I realized we'd all just witnessed a miracle—at least it was to me. God had answered my prayer, albeit not at all like I had thought He would.

There are plenty of lessons to learn from this story—the importance of friends, the power of prayer, the necessity of faith and patience—but I'd like to focus on just one aspect: the nature of miracles.

I get the feeling that many of us may have too narrow a view regarding miracles. We often expect them to be big and glamorous displays. We expect seas to part (Exodus 14:21), mountains to move (Matthew 17:20) or the sun to stop (Joshua 10:12-14). While these are all certainly miracles, they are not the only kind.

A still, small voice

God doesn't always work in huge miracles. He also makes Himself known in tiny, almost unnoticeable things. Consider the story of how God chose to appear to Elijah the prophet:

"Then He said, 'Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.' And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave" (1 Kings 19:11-13).

God was not in any of the three mighty demonstrations of nature's power. He didn't choose to present Himself in some extravagant display. Instead, He was in the "still small voice" that Elijah heard.

Not every miracle involves a great wind, earthquake or fire. Many simply involve the "still small voice" that we may hear every day if we listen close enough. We may hear it in the kindness of a stranger, in the one thing that finally goes right during a particularly bad day, in the few bright rays of sunshine cast into our lives by a good friend, in meditating on God's Word or even in the depressing depths of a hotel Dumpster.

So be on the lookout for God's "still small voice" in your life. Remember, He is watching out for you and me, and He is always there if we are willing to look.

As King David put it: "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139:7-10). There is no place we can go that God cannot work miracles in our lives.

Not even Dumpsters. VT