There are only 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

I’ve been thinking a lot about miracles lately. We tend to think of miracles as something large and inexplicable and completely outside the realm of possibility. If someone is brought back to life from a near-death experience or dramatically saved from a catastrophic event at the last possible minute – now those qualify to us as “miracles.”

For many of us, our days are filled with unknowns, insecurity, defeats, fear, even pain. And life seems to be speeding at such a high velocity that we don’t recognize that there may actually be opportunities for us to experience God’s little miracles in our lives. If we could just allow a few moments to pause, listen, and reflect, we might become aware of God’s comforting presence – which may just be one of God’s most precious everyday miracles.

Fear, loss, pain, confusion are not new phenomenon. Since the beginning of time and in every corner of the world, people have felt loss and pain and lived in fear of something or someone. The scriptures are filled with laments concerning peoples’ loss, pain and fear. “My God, why have you forsaken me?” “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”

We tend to forget the reassuring words that Jesus stated clearly: “I have come that you might have life abundantly. Be not afraid.” If we pause and ponder God’s abundant mercies to us, there is the possibility that our insecurities, our fears, our injuries, our defeats can be relieved and we can see tiny miracles around us everywhere.

Unfortunately, we are not very patient people and we are so wrapped up in our daily activities that we don’t recognize little “miracles” such as the gift of a new friend or a beautiful sunset or even spontaneous forgiveness. It’s difficult for us to open our eyes to see God’s miraculous works in our world especially in these troubled times. Perhaps whenever we feel anxiety we can recall the words from Romans 8: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” – not even financial difficulties, job problems, issues in our families, concerns about illness or loneliness – yes, nothing can separate us from the love and miracles of God.

C. S. Lewis wrote that “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” It is possible that in an effort to shield ourselves from the scary and troubling things in our lives, we also block out the positive, and we may just be too shut down to those “small letters.”

I’ve been experiencing some tiny miracles in my life recently. At first they seemed quite small, but now I realize they were written in letters too large for me to see. One is the ongoing miracle of getting connected to Dr. Rebecca Fisher and Dr. Jerome Posner, who not only try everything possible to help me heal but stand up to my insurance company when it refuses to allow me to have an important drug – like rituxin (rituximab). A couple of miracles since I started on the rituxin treatments: no pain when I move my legs in bed, no more huge spasms, being able to button my own shirt, being able to write on a keyboard with my fingers, not falling asleep at the dinner table at 6 pm. Huge miracles for me.

I recently read that Deepak Chopra wrote something about symptoms for the transformation taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. “The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.” Yes, Mr. Chopra, I believe you got that right!

So we need to be more realistic. We need to expect miracles.

* Have you had some little miracles in your life that have surprised you at how big they became?

* Are you in need of a “miracle” – big or small – that will help to transform you?

* Can you open your life to the good news of abundant life?

Beloved God, sometimes we are just so scared, so confused, so hurting that we are closed to the possibility of a miracle happening in our lives. We need your help to calm us – to remind us that you have come to give us life more abundantly. We ask that you show us that you are near. We call out to you to help us live in a world filled with fear and pain. May we always remember that though we walk through valleys with shadows of death, we need not fear for you are always with us – and that may be the biggest miracle of all. Amen.

Joy Carol

www.joycarol.com