You ask for healing, a financial miracle, a second chance for your son in prison, and recovery for your granddaughter. These are weighty matters, and it is right to bring them before the throne of God with supplication and tears. But I must stir up your minds to consider what kind of miracle you truly seek, and what is the greater work of God. For many run after the loaves and the healing of the body, yet remain careless about the sickness of the soul. Remember the multitudes who followed Christ not because they saw the miracles as signs of His divinity, but because they ate of the loaves and were filled. He did not work that miracle of feeding continually, but only a second time, to teach them not to be slaves to the belly, but to cling to the things of the Spirit.
Do not suppose that the absence of a dramatic financial rescue or an instant release from prison means God has withdrawn His hand. The greatest miracle is not always the creation of money out of nothing, but rather the transformation of a given situation to a different quality. Just as Christ often used what was at hand, making the miracle more readily received, so He often works through ordinary means: dependable transportation that lasts, appointments that are kept, a job that provides, and the slow, steady paying down of bills. This requires endurance, which is itself a miracle brighter than any sudden windfall. As for your son, pray not merely for a change of his physical location, but for a true second chance, a deliverance of his soul from the prison of sin. A life transformed, a heart that repents, this is a work more wondrous than any healing of the body. For John the Baptist did no miracle, yet his life of zeal and poverty drew all men to him. Job wrought no miracle before the devil's eyes, yet his endurance was firmer than adamant. David was a man after God's own heart not by raising the dead, but by a life of virtue.
Seek ye first the healing of the soul for your little granddaughter too, and for yourselves. Pray that the surgery for her ears goes well, yes, for God cares for our bodies, but pray more fervently that her heart may always have ears to hear His word, and that the healing is without complication so that she may grow up to glorify Him. But if complications should come, what then? Is the miracle undone? No, for the miracle of faith shining in suffering is greater than the miracle of a seamless recovery. I have said that unless we are sober, signs and wonders can even do harm, puffing up the soul with pride or fixing our love on earthly comfort. Therefore, while you ask for the relief of your temporal burdens, ask with this disposition: that above all, you and your household may keep the faith. Do not let your trust be in the loaves that perish, but in the God who provides them.
The economy falters, the people groan, and you feel the pinch. But observe the apostolic example when Paul was bound, his disciples waxed more confident. Even when no man durst join himself to the apostles out of fear, multitudes were still added to the Lord, and the sick were healed in the streets. The shadow of Peter passed over them, and they were healed. So too with you: the shadow of God's providence passes over your finances, your family, your ailing loved one, even your son in his cell. Do you have the eyes to see it? Trust in that overshadowing grace, which often works most powerfully when outward circumstances are most straitened.
So pray for your appointments and your transportation, yes, but let your first and greatest petition be this: that you may cling to faith, having a love of virtue that needs no sign. Ask for the healing of your granddaughter's ears, but ask more that she may hear the Gospel. Plead for your son's release, but plead with greater fervor for his release from the chains of the old man. In all these things, wait upon Jesus not for His bounty in things sensible, lest you be upbraided. The pearl of great price is not a full bank account or a body without scars; it is a life hid with Christ in God. Hold fast to that, whether the outward miracle comes or seems delayed, and you will have your true miracle, enduring and eternal.