Miracle: An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.
I guess you can see what is on my mind this morning. For those of you who are not familiar with myself as a person, not having been exposed to any of my ramblings before, I offer this statement, which I have expressed so many times before; "I do not believe in coincidences." I could leave you with just that much and you could end up scratching your head, wondering "Now what does he mean by that?" Would it be more clearly understood if I went on to say that I believe all events happen for a reason, a purpose, an intended affect. That statement by itself goes on to imply that for it to be true, then someone is in control of all events that happen to everyone, everywhere. It also has a way of canceling out "Chance" or "Luck."
I suspect that there are millions of miracles taking place daily somewhere in the world. Why aren't they publicized and made known? Because they happen in the lives of ordinary people who have no means of making them known to anyone else except for immediate family and friends. Some people who witness them, even active participants in them, chalk them up to "unexplainable occurrences of life" and let it go at that. They may not even think them of enough importance to tell someone else about. Or, it could be, they fear that others will think they are mentally unbalanced or imagining things, having hallucinations or just making the whole thing up, lying just to draw attention to themselves.
Well, allow me to assure you; I am not one of those people. I don't really care what you think about something that I have experienced. I will write about it and whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you. It's not like I expect you to go running to the local newspaper, spouting things like "this man experienced a miracle, don't you think it's worthy of putting into print and telling everyone that this newspaper reaches? I know it's not going to happen, because the public in general is just not interested enough in such events to take the time to read about them, let alone pondering the significance of them and judging for themselves what it might mean in the grand scheme of things.
Most miracles don't happen in front of media cameras. Oh! There are instances where a reporter will get wind of something phenomenal taking place somewhere, like a statue that weeps tears of blood or some other such thing and take the time and trouble to check it out and then, they might write something about it or print a few pictures in their articles. Things like a group of children who claim to be seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary periodically in some remote country or a bakery bun that resembles some religious Icon is covered, but seldom will they write about one individual's personal experience. There's just not enough factual evidence to make it believable and worth their while, money wise. In other words, it won't sell newspapers or magazines. Is that because it has "Been done to death" and people have gotten thick-skinned about it and thereby doubt all such reports?
Disasters happen everyday somewhere in the world, train wrecks, airplane crashes, earthquakes that level entire cities, multi-vehicle crashes on foggy interstate highways, floods, fires etc., etc. Within the details of many of those disasters, there is someone who was spared death when there is no explainable reason for them being spared. It's called fate or destiny or luck by most people. People seldom suspect that there may have been a reason for that person to have been spared and no one ever follows up on that person's life to see why they may have been spared, like there may have been some event to follow in that person's life that ended up changing circumstances for many more people. We simply are not inquisitive enough to do such follow-ups. I doubt that we will ever gain the ability to see "The Big Picture" concerning the vast scheme of things in life. It sounds too supernatural to even be concerned with. We can't explain them so why bother?
What do you suppose would happen if it were possible to let everyone in the whole world know that someone was interested in hearing about any miracle events which have happened to them and make it simple for them to share their experiences? What an interesting book that would make. There are already in existence, TV programs based on those kinds of events. I know John Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) is the host for one such series on The PAC TV cable channel here locally. I catch it every once in a while. I really enjoy the way they reenact the events, often times using the real people they happened to while doing it.
The problem with miracles is, once you have accepted that they do occur, we tend to become very human and start asking impossible to answer questions. We find it difficult to simply tell ourselves that they happen for a very specific reason and leave it at that. We want to know "Why?" specifically. Aren't there already enough unanswered questions in your life and mine? Why do we need to add any more? Sure, it would make great copy if one could explain the domino affect of a single miracle. It's very impressive when it does happen. Then, it all makes so much sense.
Like they say here in Kentucky; "I'm a-fixing to tell you a story." I was heading home from Church one Sunday morning, traveling the same route I always traveled. I was going south on eleventh street in Covington, KY because at the time, I was living in the outskirts in an apartment complex. Eleventh street is one way going south and there is a bridge between Madison and Russell Avenue on many streets because a railroad right of way runs parallel to the main thoroughfares like Madison Ave. Eleventh street runs dead-end into Russell just on the other side of the bridge. Then I would take the dogleg left on Russell for half a block, then turn right onto twelfth street, which was a two way street from that point south. This particular morning, as I pulled away from the traffic light at eleventh and Madison, it was normal for me to pull over into the left lane because I would be turning left just over the bridge. If this wasn't a one way street, the lane I was in would be a bad place to be because of on-coming traffic from the opposite direction. But, I had traveled this street so many times and was just following my usual habits, not giving it much thought at the time. Suddenly, as best I can explain it, I could see through the concrete and steel of that bridge that lay just ahead. It's a rainbow shaped bridge, a giant arch that you must climb up to the apex on and then descend the other side where it levels out for a short distance where there is another traffic light.
Without what I have since come to know as a miracle event, namely having X-ray vision, I would not have seen that small yellow car coming in my direction in the same lane I was in. After the fact, it was easy to understand what had happened. Some person who didn't know the area, a stranger to these parts, had turned onto eleventh street, missing the ONE WAY sign pointing the other direction. Sure! I was stunned for a moment at the realization that I could see through that bridge, but there was no time to dwell on it. I had to change lanes to avoid a head-on collision and possible serious injury or even death. I topped the apex of the bridge in the right lane, at the same time, that little yellow Mustang convertible reached the apex of the bridge in the left lane. There was no way we could have avoided a certain wreck had it not been for that supernatural ability I was granted for just a few moments time.
There was an old repair shop on the corner of eleventh and Russell. I pulled into the lot and just sat there for a time, trying to understand what had just taken place. There was no explaining it, it just wasn't natural. When I finally concluded that God had been watching over me and allowed that supernatural power, all I could think to do was to thank Him for it. Certainly, it was the topic of all my testimonies for many weeks and even months afterwards. The congregation at the church I attended joined me in thanks and praise at the next meeting we had. The story spread far and wide, as stories will within a small group of people, but it didn't make the newspaper headlines anywhere.
How many times do you imagine I have pondered it at length since then? Why? I would ask. Had God spared me that terrible experience for a purpose? If so, what was it? When would I find out? Here it is, seventeen years later and I still have no certain answer. One thing for sure, I wouldn't be here writing this for all of you right now. I wonder, just how important is that fact in the greater scheme of things? Will someone read this and have it bring about a change in their life? How could I ever hope to know about it if it did, unless someone contacted me later and told me all about it? I think I understand the why of it now, but I'm only guessing. I know that things I have written at times have changed the lives of others. I know because they have written and told me so.
I am in awe at the realization of how God goes about doing all that does here on the earth. It's not for any of us to know the entire scope of it. I doubt that any one individual could continue to function normally if they did know it all. What would they do with such information? Would it change the future for them? Do you have a miracle story to share with me. I sure would like to hear it. I'm not going to include it in a book, so don't get to thinking things like that. I would like to know about such events because knowing such things has a way of increasing my own faith, to cause me to have an expectant attitude concerning what could happen tomorrow or the day after that. God does move in mysterious ways.