What Is a Miracle?

There was a time when all that occurred in a single day was considered by man to be a miracle. The sun shining so the crops could grow. The moonlight so the tribe could travel in the coolness of night. The wind that took the locusts away. Everything.

Of course there were also the big miracles of biblical stories. The healing of the ill. The water into wine. The parting of the seas. But today, ah today…

We know so much more than our ancestors. Or do we?

A miracle is defined as:

1. an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

3. a wonder; marvel.

Do they really exist?

Science has explained the workings of our world so that we now understand weather patterns, growing cycles, atoms, etc. We no longer look to the sky and see miracles. When someone is healed of a disease by modern medicine, we don’t see that as a miracle. It’s just science. Right?

As a child everything felt like a miracle. A sense of wonder and awe followed every new discovery. From the tiny little silver fishes swimming around my feet at the ocean’s shore to the shooting stars that graced the skies. From the magic of popcorn to the miracle of watching my cat give birth to kittens. When I was a child I believed in Santa. I actually heard his bells on Christmas Eve. And today as an adult I still believe I heard them. Call me crazy. Call me naive. But believing in it still makes me happy.

We are fortunate to live in a time when science and spirituality are bumping up against each other in a new dance of understanding

Although it is true that we can scientifically explain how the moon moves through its phases, how caterpillars transform into butterflies, how genetics gives us hair color… there is still the seed of a miracle within. Just because we understand it doesn’t make it less miraculous. Yet the fact that we DO now understand it, might be considered another miracle in and of itself.

When we look around us with complacent eyes…

we see the mundane in our lives. We pass by children at play and miss the miracle of them. We drive fast to work and miss the miracle of the budding trees in spring. We close our windows at night and marvel at T.V. shows instead of the moon and stars. We turn on the radio to fill the silence instead of singing out loud with the miraculous voice that emanates from our miraculous bodies.

So I say…Stop!

Take the time to ‘smell the roses’ but not only that. Take the time to look at the world through the wondrous eyes of the child you used to be. Listen to the bees and the song of the birds. Take off your shoes and nestle your toes in the mud of our Earth Mother. Sit and watch the sun as it sets on your world knowing it rises in the world of another. Do something kind and see the miracle of twinkling eyes and the broad smile that graces the receiver. Cuddle a kitten and listen as it purrs its pleasure.

Oh yes there are miracles around us every day if we just stop, look, and listen. What makes a miracle?

A better question would be: What isn’t a miracle?

What doesn’t inspire contemplation? Awe? Wonder? Curiosity? What doesn’t begin as a seed of creation and develop from the bounty of our beautiful planet, or unending skies, or the depths of the human soul?

I challenge you to spend one day, or even one hour, to simply look and listen to everything and everyone around you and NOT see a miracle. You can’t. Not if you are honest. Because of all the miracles that abound…YOU are the greatest miracle of all. Unique. One of a kind. Living, breathing, creating, loving, laughing, crying, running, thinking, feeling, painting…the list goes on. How do we do these things? Well…