Jesus’ works were open and public. There was no secrecy attached to them, and he healed all who came to him.​—Matt. 8:16; 9:35; 12:15.

Another characteristic of Bible miracles is that the motive of the individual performing the miracle was not the selfish prominence of the individual or to make anyone wealthy, but was primarily to glorify God. (John 11:1-4, 15, 40) Miracles helped others, sometimes directly in a physical way and always in a spiritual way, turning persons to true worship.

Biblical miracles involved not only animate things, but inanimate things also, such as calming the wind and sea (Matt. 8:24-27), stopping and starting rain (1 Ki. 17:1-7; 18:41-45), changing water into blood or into wine (Ex. 7:19-21; John 2:1-11), and others. They also included physical cures of all types, even including leprosy (2 Ki. 5:1-14; Luke 17:11-19) and blindness from birth. (John 9:1-7) This great variety of miracles argues for their credibility as backed by the Creator. For it is logical that only the Creator could exercise influence in all fields of human experience and over all forms of matter.

PURPOSE OF MIRACLES

Miracles served a number of important purposes. Most basic, they helped to confirm the fact that a man was receiving power and support from God. (Ex. 4:1-9) Both with Moses and Jesus people drew this correct conclusion. (Ex. 4:28-31; John 9:17, 31-33) Through Moses, God had promised a coming prophet. Jesus’ miracles aided observers to identify him as that One.​—Deut. 18:18; John 6:14.

When God’s Son Jesus was on earth, he showed that Jehovah cares for little children. Jesus would take time to talk to children about God. He even used God’s power to bring young ones back from the dead! Would you like to hear how Jesus did this for one family?

There was a man named Jairus. He and his wife and their twelve-year-old daughter lived a short distance from the Sea of Galilee. The father and mother loved their daughter very much. She was their only child.

So you can imagine how sad they were when their little girl became very sick. They did everything they could to make her better, but she only got worse. Jairus could see that his daughter was going to die. And there was nothing that he or the doctors could do to help her.

But maybe Jesus could help. Jairus had heard about this wonderful man, and how he could heal people. So Jairus went to look for him. He found Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee teaching many people.

Jairus made his way through the crowd and fell at Jesus’ feet. He said to him: ‘My little daughter is very sick. Will you please come and help her? I beg you to come.’

Right away Jesus went with Jairus. The great crowd that had come to see the Great Teacher also followed along. But after they had gone a distance, some men came from the house of Jairus, and told him: “Your daughter died! Why bother the teacher any longer?”

Jesus overheard the men say this. He knew how sad Jairus was to lose his only child. So he told him: ‘Do not fear. Just have faith in God. Your daughter will be all right.’

So they kept on going until they came to Jairus’ house. Here friends of the family were crying. They were sad because their little friend had died. But Jesus told them: ‘Stop weeping. The young child has not died, but she is sleeping.’

When Jesus said this, the people began to laugh at him. For they knew that the girl had died. But Jesus said that the girl was only sleeping in order to teach those people a lesson. He wanted them to know that by means of God’s power he could bring a dead person back to life just as easily as we could awaken a person from sleep.

Jesus now had everyone leave the room except three of his apostles and the child’s father and mother. Then he went in where the young child was. He took her by the hand, and said: ‘Young girl, get up!’ And right away she got up and began walking! The father and mother were just filled with joy.​—Mark 5:21-24, 35-43; Luke 8:40-42, 49-56.

A family of three persons lived in Nain. There was a father, a mother and their son. Then the father died. How sad this made the woman! But she still had her son, and this brought her comfort. Then her son died. Now she had no family left. Her grief was indeed great!

The time came to bury the boy. Many of the people of Nain went along as the body was carried outside the city. The boy’s mother was weeping, and the people could not do anything to comfort her. It was very sad.

Now, Jesus and his disciples happened to be coming toward the city of Nain on this day. And near the city gate they met the crowd that was on their way to bury the woman’s son. When Jesus saw the crowd and the weeping woman, he was moved with pity for her. His heart was touched by her great sadness. He wanted to help her.

So with tenderness, and yet with a firmness that made her listen, the Great Teacher said: “Stop weeping.” His manner and action caused everyone to watch him with interest. As Jesus went over to the boy’s body, all must have wondered what he was going to do.

Jesus spoke to the dead boy, and commanded: “Young man, I say to you, Get up!” Right away he sat up! And he started to speak.​—Luke 7:11-17.