WATCHWORD:
You may recall God’s word: Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12
Meditation:
Miracles at Work
Have you ever seen a miracle? No? Are you sure? Maybe you were part of it, and you have no recollection of having been there, or seen it, or heard it. Maybe, without you knowing, someone had observed you doing something to help another person, or reaching out to correct a wrong, and it caused them to think, to pray, to act. Just a little thing, a seedling.
There are some who believe miracles are all around us, all the time. Are you one of those? We hear about miracle drugs, miracle this, miracle that, and maybe that’s just advertising. Or is it? If we believe that God is ever-present, then, yes, miracles are all around us.
I’m a child of God and I am a miracle. Last year was a terrible health year for me and I carried that illness into 2025. Sometime this past January, I found myself in crisis, unable to breathe. I managed to get my phone out and, with great effort, punched in 911, then it slipped out of my hand. I could hear the 911 operator asking questions from a distance, but I could not speak. I was in a full-blown panic when Graham, my friend, walked in the front door, as he occasionally did, saw what was happening to me, grabbed my phone and five minutes later I was being loaded in an ambulance, heading for the hospital. My friend saved my life, or was it one of God’s everyday miracles, or both? When it happens to you, as it did to me, there’s something indelible about the God moment.
Do you dream? Ever wake up in the morning and realize you had this wonderful, beautiful dream but you can’t recall enough to explain to another what was in that dream. Probably that dream lasted a millisecond in your mind, yet you could swear to all the details, if you could only recall. I’m not saying that miracles are like dreams. But I am wondering if miracles and dreams are more than we think they are. What if they are little snippets that come into our lives, that, taken separately, have little meaning to our earth-bound minds, yet, taken together — something special, God on the move.
This meditation is not so much about miracles or dreams, but about an active God among us, within us. What one author has called “Holy Nudges”, or a gathering of settings, or circumstance, or something we read or prayed about, that moves us in a particular way. Maybe something that touches our heart that causes us to think, or speak, or act.
In my book, Middle of Nowhere, one of my characters is Caledonia. She has been a chuck-wagon cook, head chef at a dude ranch, then she retired to write Wyoming/Western stories that were best sellers. Asked how she wrote books in the middle of an abandoned prairie town, she talked about being inspired, that so many of her stories just “kinda wrote themselves.” When asked if she considered that it might be a Higher Power at work, she brushed that off, but, later, thought about it. A Holy nudge? A seed planted?
One cannot go through life as a Christian and not feel Holy nudges; those times when circumstance may have brought you to a different conclusion than you expected, or maybe a detour that brought you into contact with a family in distress, perhaps it was your church that brought you into new ways of serving the Lord.
I like the image of a sunrise over a strand of mountains or the sun dipping into the ocean, that triggers an appreciation of the beauty of God’s creation and brings you closer to Him. Holy nudges? Perhaps a loved one in the hospital, the nature of the illness requires separation. You are both filled with the pain of absence from one another and the fear of the unknown. In your distress, you turn to Him. Some nudges, some miracles, carry pain.
You may recall God’s word: Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12
None of these things seem like miracles, at the time, but each one is a grace handed down by God. Maybe that’s the definition of miracle that we should hold on to. Sure, we would like to be part of what one friend has called “the grand slam”, but we do not always see the work that God is doing, for we “see things imperfectly”, but then, we will know…
Little miracles, happening every day. Graces touching each moment, of each day, of each week, throughout our lifetimes. Praise the Lord, for He is good, His mercies are new every day. Amen. Stan Escott
Praying the Hymn Praise the Lord My Soul:
Praise the Lord, my soul, O praise Him; All within me, praise His name. Praise the Lord for all His blessings, And forget not whence they came. God forgives me all my failings, Heals my sickness by His power, Saves my life from certain judgment,
Crowns with love and care each hour. Praise the Lord, my soul, O praise Him; All within me, praise His Holy name. Amen.
