Just a Musing...

Miracles.

Since it's the Christmas season I thought a musing on miracles would be fitting and easy. Whew, was I wrong. Once I started thinking about miracles and the meanings and reasons and origins of such things I was struck by how much punch this one little word can pack. 

First of all...I love the word 'miracle.' It's a strong sounding word. Powerful. Elegant looking. 

And then there's the meaning. From Wikipedia, "A miracle is an unexpected event attributed to divine intervention." Wow, not a shallow definition by any means. It's also one that could be debated, picked apart and used universally in most if not all cultures and religions. 

So using the word to say, 'darn, it will be a miracle if I get these dishes done' is perhaps a misuse of such a powerful and meaningful word, unless of course I have divine help in accomplishing such a mundane task. Which you never know... :) 

I read Guideposts magazine every month and there's always stories on miracles. Perhaps one has to have faith to believe in miracles, otherwise it would be easy to dismiss the event as either a coincidence or good luck. Or maybe the cynics would say we only have miracles because we think there is more than what one can feel and touch and see. The hateful would say miracles can't happen because why wouldn't they happen for everything. Protect us from anything. 

     I say I don't have all the answers. It does seem like the more answers I find, I find ten times as many questions to go with them. But I believe in miracles. Not lightly because I don't have answers but because it simply makes sense to me. 

     Once when my children were little, I inadvertently left the tub full while I dried them off and then forgot about it. Well, my toddler, who couldn't climb out of the tub without assistance fell in but I didn't hear it. Suddenly, this wet and soggy toddler appears, unfazed in the hallway needing a new set of clothing and I realized with only the horror a parent can experience in the deepest halls of their hearts, that something horrible had almost happened. But it didn't. Is there an explanation? Possibly. Perhaps, just once my toddler managed to climb out of a tub, even though everything was wet and slippery.    

      Unlikely. 

      Perhaps, they didn't fall all the way in even though they were totally wet.    

      Grimace. 

      Perhaps, it's a miracle and one I never take for granted. 

      A search on miracle and books will provide quite a list of books about miracles of all sorts. I haven't read many of them. I think the most wonderful fictional book I ever read about miracles was a children's book, 'The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.' By Susan Wojciechowski. The story is bittersweet but more sweet at the end than bitter and the illustrations by PJ Lynch are a pleasure to look at. This book gets read more than once during the month of December. 

       Miracles. A topic that deserves more than just a blog entry.