Is there any such thing as a miracle?
I have known many zealous Pentecostlas anxious to Just Believe. Yes, faith is a matter of believing matter over mind...but not in absence of the mind. If someone claims that God healed them of a dreadful disease in some instant fashion, ok, then get a doctor's exam to seal the proof. But alas, rarely do we hear of documented medical evidence of supernatural phenomena occurring as a result of Divine Intervention of any kind...
Perhaps.miracles are in the eye of the beholder.
Have I ever experienced or witnessed a miracle
Perhaps.miracles are in the eye of the beholder.
Have I ever experienced or witnessed a miracle
At least two : the births of my children.
Well, actually, Jeremy was a very sick baby. Very very sick. He was diagnosed with a serious birth defect when I was four months pregnant. I was asked to consider my "options" for certainly he would not survive pregnancy, and if by chance he did, he would die an agonizing death upon birth. "I've never seen a baby survive this syndrome," counseled the genetic counselor who explained the gravity of his condition to me.
Obviously I carried him to term. Two in utero procedures were administered. I did not know whether to plan a baby shower or a funeral. So I prayed. Very hard.
He was born early on Easter morning. He had his first surgery at just 5 days old. A total of four by age 2. The chief neonatologist of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) told me, "We don't usually see babies like this fare so well. Your son is a miracle."
The same day one of the nurses came over to introduce herself to me and to see Jeremy. She explained that her unborn son had been diagnosed with the exact same condition 16 years prior. He died before he was born. She had to meet me and Jeremy, she said, because she wanted to meet the baby who beat the odds.
Was Jeremy's birth a miracle, or rather, the fact that he dodged a bullet, is that because I prayed? Don't all mothers pray? I read about a young Christian couple, full-time ministry who lost their baby shortly after birth to this syndrome. They had people all over the world praying for them. They buried their baby and continued on with their full-time Christian ministry. I wrote them a letter, of condolence. I said to them in the letter, "Perhaps yours is the greater miracle for you still believe in the goodness of God though your prayer went unanswered."
Are miracles real? Do they actually occur? Or are they simply mirages of our hopes for the divine to invade the world we find ourselves in? Maybe it's not a yes/no answer. Perhaps the answer is in the realm of both/and/sometimes/we cannot know.
My simple perspective is this : Life is a miracle. That we even exist and walk upon the earth of a world that sustains us is sheer magic to me. That we can love and forgive and show kindness to the unkind and charity to the greedy and compassion for the hopeless, this is a kind of miracle, the everyday garden variety kind. Perhaps this is why in part Jesus downplayed those spectacular feats he is said to have commited. Maybe in his Divine Wisdom he could foresee that humankind would focus on the Big Stuff, like healing the blind, rather than the everyday stuff, like a Samaritan helping a Jew.
I don't need miracle stories to tantalize my spiritual appetite. In fact, if a preacher comes in with guns blazing of how amazing God's power has been showing up in miracles through him, well, I am automatically on Red Alert.
Well, actually, Jeremy was a very sick baby. Very very sick. He was diagnosed with a serious birth defect when I was four months pregnant. I was asked to consider my "options" for certainly he would not survive pregnancy, and if by chance he did, he would die an agonizing death upon birth. "I've never seen a baby survive this syndrome," counseled the genetic counselor who explained the gravity of his condition to me.
Obviously I carried him to term. Two in utero procedures were administered. I did not know whether to plan a baby shower or a funeral. So I prayed. Very hard.
He was born early on Easter morning. He had his first surgery at just 5 days old. A total of four by age 2. The chief neonatologist of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) told me, "We don't usually see babies like this fare so well. Your son is a miracle."
The same day one of the nurses came over to introduce herself to me and to see Jeremy. She explained that her unborn son had been diagnosed with the exact same condition 16 years prior. He died before he was born. She had to meet me and Jeremy, she said, because she wanted to meet the baby who beat the odds.
Was Jeremy's birth a miracle, or rather, the fact that he dodged a bullet, is that because I prayed? Don't all mothers pray? I read about a young Christian couple, full-time ministry who lost their baby shortly after birth to this syndrome. They had people all over the world praying for them. They buried their baby and continued on with their full-time Christian ministry. I wrote them a letter, of condolence. I said to them in the letter, "Perhaps yours is the greater miracle for you still believe in the goodness of God though your prayer went unanswered."
Are miracles real? Do they actually occur? Or are they simply mirages of our hopes for the divine to invade the world we find ourselves in? Maybe it's not a yes/no answer. Perhaps the answer is in the realm of both/and/sometimes/we cannot know.
My simple perspective is this : Life is a miracle. That we even exist and walk upon the earth of a world that sustains us is sheer magic to me. That we can love and forgive and show kindness to the unkind and charity to the greedy and compassion for the hopeless, this is a kind of miracle, the everyday garden variety kind. Perhaps this is why in part Jesus downplayed those spectacular feats he is said to have commited. Maybe in his Divine Wisdom he could foresee that humankind would focus on the Big Stuff, like healing the blind, rather than the everyday stuff, like a Samaritan helping a Jew.
I don't need miracle stories to tantalize my spiritual appetite. In fact, if a preacher comes in with guns blazing of how amazing God's power has been showing up in miracles through him, well, I am automatically on Red Alert.
The best miracles seem to be the obscure, small kind. The kind that can happen to anyone anytime. Like finding that lost item in just the right moment when you could not locate it for months. That's a common miracle, and yes, I very much experience and witness these on a regular basis. I just have to be paying attention.
"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." -Albert Einstein
5 comments:
Wonderful post (my sis sent me to your blog).
...and I think the miracle is in the conversation of praying by people who have never stepped foot in a church, not necessarily in the results.
Pam, two Sundays ago this older guy was wheeling around in his motorized wheelchair under the bridge at our gathering.
"You want something to eat?" But he just kept wheeling around and looking. Didn't seem to want to eat or talk.
After an hour or so, he spoke, in broken English, "Do you understand that this is a MIRACLE? God is here, right now. Here!" And so on.
Everybody else saw a bunch of dirty, ragged people. Not this old man from someplace else. Not me either.
I get to witness this amazing miracle every week. I am more fortunate than anyone I know.
I love you, Pam. I'm with you on the miracle thing.
hi maureen, i think i know who your sister is (Lillian??)...thanks for stopping by and I love what you say here...yes, I am so glad that spirituality and faith transactions like prayer are not confined to a place or certain way. Someone I know likes to say that "Prayer is a conversation wrapped up in relationship." I like that.
Hey Ken, wow. Totally. That's what I'm talking about and those are the kind of miracles I am on the prowl for. Thanks for chiming in. I love you back!
My sentiments exactly. That we even love, even forgive, even live each day...miracles.
Totally needed this today, Pam! Thanks! Have been missing the BIG miracles lately which just means I must be forgetting to look at the little miracles that really are much bigger than I think about! Miss you! Let's hang out soon! I love you!
And love Ken's story, too!
Hugs!
Post a Comment