Who rained manna from heaven to feed the hungry in the wilderness;

Who, through his servant Joshua, stopped the sun and moon as long as he had his will;

Who destroyed the pagan armies and granted victory to the weak, but more righteous;

Who made childless old women mothers;

Who, through the prophet Elijah, shut up the heavens so that it would not rain for forty-two months;

Who commanded the earth sometimes to give a bountiful harvest of wheat, fruit, and grapes for the sustenance of men, sometimes to grow such a crop for the sustenance not of men, but of worms and caterpillars, and sometimes not to produce any at all, all by the faith and chastity of men;

Who, through innumerable miracles, showed men that He had not lost the power which man had lost in his folly, but possessed it at all times and in abundance - power over nature and over the natural order;

Who, finally, through His inspired prophets, proclaimed - little by little in the course of thousands of years of human history - the coming to earth of the One, mysterious and manifest, Who will have full and abundant power over nature and its order.

And, indeed, the age-old prophecies came true when God the Word appeared on earth as the Miracle Worker, as the Expeller of demons, the Lover of mankind, the Healer of diseases, the Opener of paradise. At once mysterious and manifest, He stood face to face with nature, not as inferior to nature, nor as its equal, but as the Lord of nature. And no one else, less than Him, was needed by the human race. No one else and weaker could be either the Messiah or the Savior of people from the powers of demons, from sin, from death. No one has ever been able to restore to people the dignity of rulers over nature and the natural order.

He did not even want to be born in the natural order, of his father and mother, but only of his mother. He was born of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, the only Person chosen and destined for this one role in the history of the world. Even His Forerunner, St. John the Baptist, was not born quite according to nature: although from a father and mother, they were barren and aged. It is said about the Lord Jesus in the church hymn: "Thou didst appear, as Thou didst will, Thou wast born, as Thou didst will." Every birth is in His power.

The star in the east shone when He was born, a strange star. We have seen His star in the east, said the wise astrologers, inquiring about the new King. It was, therefore, His star; it is not that others are not His, all is His, but this eastern star is called His star because of its extraordinary radiance and service intended for Him. The service of this star was to announce to the wise people in the east that a new King had been born, and to lead them to Bethlehem, the place where He was born. The stars, therefore, are in His power and in His service.

To own one's body means to own nature. In this, too, the Savior of the world showed Himself to be the Lord of nature. For forty days and forty nights He fasted, without any drink or bodily food.

He turned water into wine - doesn't this show power over nature? At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the host did not have enough wine. Then Jesus commanded that six large vessels be filled with water. And when this was done, that water was transformed into wine, and into the best wine. It is not said that the Lord touched the water with His most pure hands, with which He opened the sight of the blind, or that He uttered any word, such as, say: "Let this water be wine!" No nothing. He only commanded in his mind, and nature felt its Lord, and the water turned into wine (John 2:1-11).

To calm the storm at sea and, in a word, to stop the strong wind - doesn't this also show the power over nature? And a great storm arose; the waves were hitting the boat, so that it was already filled with water. And He slept in the stern... They woke Him up and said to Him: "Teacher! Is there no need of Thee that we are perishing? And having risen, He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be still, cease. And the wind died down, and there was a great silence... And they were afraid with great fear, and said among themselves, Who is this, that both the wind and the sea obey him? (Mark 4:37-39, 41). Thus the apostles asked. But both then and later they became convinced that this was Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord of nature and of all order in nature.