Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord?

Psalm 106: 2

I am a Christian. And as a Christian who stands on the word, I believe in miracles. I am a nurse practitioner, a scientist who understands the pathophysiology of the life cycle. In my daily work I refer to protocols, data and statistics, regurgitating numbers to families and patients who want to know “how long” or “will I recover”? As these two paradigms intersect, admittedly I struggle. Some the most challenging cases I have experienced involve families and patients who are holding out for a miracle. It is difficult as a clinician to witness suffering in the face of medical futility while standing in wait for a miracle. A miracle that is never going to happen. Because science says so. Right?

What is a miracle?

A miracle is defined in the bible as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.  The bible has many examples of miracles: Jesus giving sight to the blind, making the lame walk, restoring the dead to life. Perhaps my definition of miracle is too narrow. When I think of a miracle I think of the grand, mind-blowing biblical events. I have realized the miracle doesn’t always have to be that someone will be cured or that their life will be spared. Sometimes the miracle isn’t as close to us as we think it should be and only in hindsight can we see it. And perhaps for some the miracle doesn’t occur on this side of heaven.

Miracles wrapped in tragedy

I can still clearly remember the day my Dad died. I spoke with him by phone earlier in the day and was worried that he wasn’t well. He shirked off my concerns and kept about his day, traveling 90 miles round trip to have his car serviced. As he returned to the lake, he stopped at a gas station and went inside. A few minutes later he collapsed inside the store and died. Why didn’t he die behind the wheel that day while driving? His untimely death was certainly not a miracle for our family. But it was a miracle for every person he passed that day.  Sadly, someone else’s miracle may be wrapped in someone else’s tragedy.

Who gets to decide what is or isn’t a miracle?

It is all a matter of perspective. As I discussed with my colleague a mutual patient, she exclaimed that it was a miracle this man was alive! Previously fully independent and healthy, this gentleman had acquired a severe infection that had a dramatic effect on his entire body. After a very prolonged hospitalization, he was discharged with a tracheostomy, prolonged ventilator support and a feeding tube. I asked myself, “how could this be a miracle? How can being kept alive by machines be a miracle”? But for that man and his family, as long as there was breath in his lungs, it was a miracle for them.  You see, I don’t get to decide someone else’s miracle. It is like defining quality of life. We all have our own interpretation and definition.

We may never realize

It is possible we go about our everyday lives, intersecting with the lives of others, with small little miracles happening all around. Maybe that dollar we donated to cancer research was the last dollar needed to fund breakthrough research that saves countless lives. Maybe it’s the phone call to someone who you felt nudged to reach out to and because of that caring call, they made a different choice that ultimately saved their life. Perhaps it comes in the form of a new mother willing to give the gift of her child to adoptive parents in waiting. Could it be one more day of sobriety? Maybe it is just as simple as opening our eyes each morning. As we go about life, might I remind you to be kind, generous and filled with gratitude, performing small miracles all around you, everywhere you go.