Small Miracles

I believe in miracles. I believe in them, whether big or small I take them seriously. I also believe that if something is a major coincidence, then perhaps it is a small miracle. I don’t think that coincidences just happen. Call me dumb, or naïve, but I believe that God and his angels still interfere with our lives today.

I personally have lived through many, many miracles. Some so amazing that when I tell people about them, most do not believe me anyway. Sometimes I wonder what is the sense in telling, if they aren’t going to believe me? Fortunately for me, I have proof for many of my BIG miracles, but what about the small ones? Since this post is labeled small miracles, I am going to share with you a few experiences in my life that I note as small miracles. Perhaps later at one point I will discuss my big ones.

First of all I am going to say this now, I don’t believe that any miracle is a small one. That being said, I would like to define what I am saying when I say a small miracle. I am referring to a strange coincidence in happenings. I believe that too many strange coincidences, or ironies, define what I am calling a small miracle. Could they have been just that, a strange coincidence? Sure, to many people the answer is yes of course. Some say fate, some say irony, and some just say it is a matter of good luck. I don’t, I say it is God. Even when miracles can be accounted for, I believe that God laid it upon a person to do the thing, which in your book was a blessing. God uses us as tools too.

Well, here are a few of my “Small Miracles.”

Miracle 1- The Halloween Pumpkins- I celebrate Halloween. I know that many of you guys are against it, but I do celebrate Halloween with my kids. I do it just for them to have fun and eat candy. Anyway one year when I was still working, I had picked up quite a few hours, and when it came down to the time of picking out pumpkins for the kids, I delayed it. Truthfully, I didn’t feel like going. I am a procrastinator, and I always put things off. This has gotten me into trouble before. I have since learned.

Anyway, it finally came to the night before Halloween, and my daughter kept bugging me, “Mom you promised to get pumpkins!” Finally at around 8:00 that night, I decided to grab some. Brandon had told me earlier that the stores he stopped at were all out of pumpkins. So, I just skipped over them, and I ran into some other stores. Every store I came to was out of pumpkins. Every one. I couldn’t believe my luck. Ileyah was crying, Brandina was sad. The kids were tired, and they just wanted me to spend time with them painting pumpkins. Well as I stopped at store after store, and everyone telling me that I was crazy, that there was no way that I was going to get a pumpkin at that hour, I began to pray. I asked God to forgive me for putting my kids off, and to intercede and help me to find a pumpkin. We finally got to a store that I have never been to in my whole life, and I sent Ileyah in. They said that they had no pumpkins. It was just my luck. Stores are now beginning to close, and nobody had pumpkins. I was devastated. I broke yet another promise to my kids. Anyway, as Ileyah was walking out of the door, a guy yelled for her to come back. He found them. Three little pumpkins were sitting in a different spot in the store. That is exactly how many pumpkins we needed, so it turned out perfect!

My kids were elated. The spirits were lifted. That man saved our day. I have learned since then, that if I am going to make promises to my kids that I need to be more willing to go out and get the things that I need to keep my promises. That day changed me. I thanked God, and I felt wonderful going home. Was it a big deal? No not really, not to me. It was everything to my kids. In my book it was a small miracle.

Miracle 2- Which is really times 3- Unexpected money/gifts- God looks out for me financially pretty much often. There have been 2 different occasions where I have received cash in my mailbox at a time when we needed it, and it was very unexpected. One of those times was this Christmas. We were stressing on having enough Christmas money for the kids, when I checked the mail, we literally got a letter from Santa Clause. None of us recognized the writing, and there was $100.00 cash in the envelope. There was no return address, and no one that I knew confessed to doing it. It was a wonderful feeling. I am sure that someone sent us the money, however God had to lay upon that persons heart to send it to us.

We have received anything from gift cards to cash, to almost anything. It is honestly incredible. People talk about us being selfish at this time because of the economy, however we (my family) have experienced the complete opposite. We are humbled by people’s lack of selfishness.

Could God have sent me the letters? Of course, that can be answered by anyone that has read the book “The Shack!” However, in my book it is still a miracle even if an anonymous person sent us this to help us out. It is not natural for people to so easily give to others. Many people are selfish in nature. I find it miraculous that there are still people who know when someone may have needs and they reach out to fulfill them.

Miracle 3- The Power of Friends- Brandon has been down lately. He has been kind of stressed out due to his work situation. He was kind of telling me about it the other day, when a door repairman was at our house. He was telling me about his stresses, and how he feels overwhelmed lately. The door repairman was outside of our house, so neither one of us thought too much about him. Anyway, Brandon had left to go to work, and the guy when finished with the work came into the house for me to sign some papers. He gave me his card and told me to have Brandon call him. He said that he had some stuff he needed to go over with him about the door, and that he wanted to talk to him about some other things, and get to know him better.

Brandon got home that night, and I told him to call him. Brandon was reluctant, but after some pushing, he did. Brandon was on the phone with the man for about a good ten minutes. When he got off the phone Brandon looked at me completely confused. He said to me, “Uh, that guy wanted me to study the Bible with him.” I was a little dumbfounded myself. I thought that it was nice, and Brandon started laughing. His stress kind of lifted when that man said that he would pray for my husband and that they should do a Bible Study.

New friends and old friends can make a difference in our daily lives. God sends them to us for a reason. I have been able to recently reconnect with a long lost friend from Russia. She was here for a year, and we lost touch the minute she went home. We were close when she was here. I thought that I would never see her again. She thought the same. It just so happened that when I joined facebook she was on it. I was once again dumbfounded. We have been able to catch up. Not only were we able to catch up, we are truly friends again. It is a wonderful thing. She is honest with me about the things that I have to say, and I truly am glad to have that honesty and trust. It is a great feeling.

Either way, Regardless on what it is, small miracles happen to us daily. I think that we need to recognize them more often for what they truly are, and then thank God for what he has taken the time to do for us, whether small or large. I have learned that when I realize how much I have to be thankful for, it is harder to be ungrateful. It is also more difficult to say that God doesn’t interfere with our daily lives this day in age. It has been my experience that he not only interferes, but he loves to show us he’s with us and that he cares!