What is a miracle? Certainly Judaism names any number of miracles in the old Testament that God is said to have brought about: the parting of the Red Seas - the pregnancy of Sarah, etc. Christianity claims any number of miracles that Jesus was suppose to have accomplished: the raising of Lazereth from the dead, the feeding of a whole crowd with just loaves and fishes, making the lame able to walk, and the blind to see again. Apparently Buddha acknowledged certain supernatural powers but said they were not to be used by his followers except to relieve the suffering of others and then they were miracles. Interesting discussions have taken place over the centuries about whether the above mentioned events were literal events or metaphors about faith's ability to give us new life, to create abundance from little, to give us new site or new possibilities. And I must confess that when I approach these questions on the metaphor level I am able to recognize that I have heard stories that are indeed miraculous of people turning over a new leaf and coming to a new life, of how with an abundance mindset financially impossible things become possible, amazing stories of people being transformed my their own new insights or their own willingness to heal. (I recommend any number of such stories that Wayne Dyer tells.)
I think those that have focused on measuring whether religion is "True" based upon improbable stories of miracles have unfortunately missed the boat entirely. While looking to whether science could validate or explain the reported miracles, they have missed the miracle that is science every day all day long. I mean even though we understand how reproduction and birth works...anyone that has ever watched a woman's belly swell for 9 months and watched a baby be born into the world knows that the ordinary is in fact quite miraculous.
Here are some other miracles: that birds fly and that in mimicking them we do too. that we have sight and that the world is so spectularly beautiful! That on a remarkably regular basis total strangers do acts of kindness for others they do not know - including saving people's lives. That those who survived the 9/11 towers did even while others perished (and if you listen to their stories many are miraculous in the curious exceptions that took them out of the buildings) That I have have not been killed in a car accident (do you know the feeling? If we are truthful we have all had so many near misses whether our fault or someone else's There is an angel that hangs in my car and that is NOT accident, but an acknowledgement that Spirit keeps me safe) It is in fact a miracle in each our cases that a great great great grandfather survived a war and came home to bare off spring, and that a great grandmother survived the scarlet fever and thus became a mother to your grandparent. Then there is the very ordinary miracles: that I passed algebra in HS, that we open our eyes each day, that we have sight, hearing and mobility (assuming you indeed do) that our immune systems worked so well to keep us healthy, that people meet their spouse out of the millions of people on the planet, etc.
Dear Reader please post one of your miracles here.
Somehow we have become confused about miracles - because we think the are the Red Seas parting or a dead man rising we are failing to recognize and celebrate the miracles that happen everyday. We fail to notice the Divine at work in our daily lives, and thus also to give Thanksgiving for the many Blessing we are each showered with in the most miraculous of ways. Celebrate your Miracles!
