miracles

It's the 90th post, and you'd think I'd learn eventually that you can't hit 'return' to take yourself from the title line to the message body... We live, we don't learn.
Speaking of airheadedness. I got off the metro (my daily commute -- not a strange route) one stop early yesterday. Even worse, I didn't realize it until I was halfway up the first escalator. I sincerely worry that I am losing my mind. That I will go in for some test one day, and they will find a gaping cavity where a brain should be.
Then again, I've always been a bit airheaded. So that's a comfort. ... I guess.

But none of that has to do with miracles!

Matt and I have been discussing the story of Jonah a lot over the past week. We did a Jonah table for our church's exploration of the minor prophets. The other 11 M.P.'s had tables, too. I loved it (the service). Those things always come together so well. It's been said before, but I love being around such creative and positive and uplifting people. Some weeks, that (and Matt and Lizzy) are the only uplifting people I encounter.
Actually, we've discussed Jonah a bit previously, as well. Kate and Matt trivia: I won't bore (or horrify) you with the entire "the day I was in labor with Lizzy" story, but a weird (to me) part of it is that my water broke at 2 a.m., we called the maternity center, they said to try to get some rest and hold off coming in 'til morning, if we could. I awoke; no more contractions. We went in at about 9. They gave me castor oil -- the effects were way worse than the taste, and you don't want to know what I mean by that -- and told us to hang out somewhere, grab lunch, see a movie, whatever. So we did. We ate at Chick Fil A and then saw "Jonah," the Veggie Tales movie. So weird to be sitting in a movie theater, knowing you will be popping out a kid (who no longer has any cushioning in there) later that day. Wondering how the theater management would feel about this if they knew.
So Jonah (the movie) is rather near and dear to our hearts, sort of. Or at least, the Archibald Asparagus version.

Matt asked me a month ago or so if I really believed that Jonah had been swallowed by a whale, lived in it for three days (roughly) and then survived and went elsewhere about his business. I said, Sure. And, I don't really know. Which is pretty much my response to matters of faith these days. I don't claim to have all the answers. I don't feel that I have many answers at all. But the few things I know, I KNOW. And whether or not I can prove them does not affect my faith.
And those last few sentences probably would have many shaking their heads and considering me an idiot.

So, for the sake of argument, and a wee bit of curiosity, I Googled Jonah for apologetics stories and explanations of what might've happened. I'm happy to go with the "God could've, and perhaps did, create an entirely new creature, or a bastardization of an existing creature, or kept around a dinosaur-era creature, capable of doing this deed." But I suppose some might consider that a cop-out. What I found was that some believe, after research and analysis I won't bore you with, that certain toothed whales -- sperm whale? -- might be capable. They would've have been found, usually, in the waters where this story took place, but, hey. Animals get lost, too. Oh, or a great white shark could've swallowed a man-sized object.

In any case, we'll never be able to prove, or know for sure -- unless God tells us, and I don't know if he will answer our questions or not -- what really happened. If it's true. How it was done. To me, it doesn't matter. God doesn't get bigger or smaller for me regardless of the method.

It led me to think about what miracles are, and who seems to receive them. I think God knows who is receptive. And there are many other variables. And, what some would consider miracles, others would see flukes or coincidences or nothing at all.

With that in mind, and with apologies to the three people who are not me, and therefore who have not granted me permission to share their stories, I would like to list four modern-day miracles that I have heard second-hand, or first-hand (the one that was me):

1) A boy is horribly abused by his stepfather during his entire adolescence. He grows up determined to follow his own way, and to listen to no authority figure. He moves to Hawaii, and runs a bar. He decides that, at age 28, he will kill himself, because he can't stand the thought of being "old" (ouch).
He throws a big party on his boat, after which he will do the deed. He bids everyone goodbye, and goes for a walk on the island. He is clearly feeling disturbed and at the end of his rope. He sees a note on a rock next to the path. He stops to investigate. It is a piece of paper with only the words "God loves you" on the paper, held down by a Hershey's Kiss.
He lays face-down in the path and cries for an hour, then moves off of the path and cries for another hour or so. He connects with God. He decides to live, and live well.
When I heard this story last year (or 2004?), he had a lovely wife and two precious children, and you'd never know he had such a troubled past.

2) A lovely, lively woman moves to another country to pursue an advanced degree. She has a difficult year adjusting to the climate, both physical and social. She has some setbacks. She dates a man for a short time, and breaks up with him. She starts to question why she's there. She feels very down, about herself and just about everything.
One day, she walks along the street, feeling very low. In desperation, she asks God for a sign that he still cares; that she should have some hope for the future.
A few minutes (or so?) later, she looks down at the pavement and sees her name -- not a common name, at that -- written in the cement. Not written ON the cement; written IN the cement.
She has since found one of the loveliest, kindest men on the planet and married him, and is very busy starting her new life, still in that country.

3) A young woman (me) and her friend, during their year abroad in Wales, decide to Eurorail it around the continent for their spring break (which lasts a month). They are fairly poor, but want to see what they can see -- staying in hostels, sleeping on trains occasionally, mostly eating what they can find at grocery stores. They have a fairly tight schedule to meet, since they're very excited about seeing all the places they'd heard of all their lives, and they're trying to pack a lot in.
One day, they have an especially tight schedule: Three hours in Pisa. Just enough to get off the train, run across town, see the Leaning Tower, snap a few photos and get back. On the way back, they figure they still have time to split a pizza for lunch. Only, they're wrong. Even sprinting, with full packpacks a-bouncing, they make it to the train station a few minutes late.
And the very dependable train system shows a flaw. The train they planned to take is 10 minutes late, which had not happened previously in their several weeks of travel. So they are able to hop on board and make it to Genoa, and thus see and hike the Cinque Terre, which turns out to be their favorite day of the entire trip. AND, it's sunny that day, at last.

4) A middle-aged woman goes for her annual breast exam. She is told that there are some unexpected masses showing up on the photos that were taken. She is told that it will take a week or so to run some tests and stuff. She waits, she wonders, she worries, she prays fervently with her husband and tells no one else of this until there's something conclusive to report.
She returns a week later. She is shown to an office that she hasn't seen anyone else taken to. She braces to hear the worst, and is told: "We are SO SORRY! I don't know how this happened, but the film we were looking at wasn't actually yours. Your results were totally normal. No problems."

These are the things my God does. We don't deserve blessings like these -- large and small represented here, obviously -- but we sure get them. I think it's fine to wrestle over the bigger questions, too, but I don't want to miss the smaller, everyday miracles when they come along. They sure feel big at the time.