Miracles 101

A miracle is the impossible made possible. Experiencing or witnessing a miracle fills people with awe and awakens faith in a Higher Power and the possibility of divine intervention.

Are Miracles ‘Real?’
Dictionaries and our relentlessly rational Western mind focus on the idea that a miracle has to be picked apart and ‘proven’ to defy scientific or rational analysis. And, whether you’re talking about the miracles attributed to Jesus, Mohammed, and other avatars and spiritual masters, or even near death experiences, cynics and debunkers usually find a way to scoff at them.

For example, at least twice, Jesus was reported to have fed between 4,000 and 5,000 people by blessing, and then passing around a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish. To our modern minds, it seems likely that Jesus motivated people who already had food to share theirs, while the small contents of a single basket were passed around.

But even when hindsight provides a likely explanation, it cannot diminish the impact of that miracle, the solution to a dilemma that was beyond people’s ability to imagine, and so seemed impossible to them.

Modern Miracles
Sometimes miracles happen in a moment, like spontaneous or hands-on healings. Sometimes they can take many years, such as when victims of crippling diseases or birth defects transcend their limitations and achieve greatness.

However miracles happen, here are some of their common ingredients:

Asking or Intending
Two of the most intractable social and political problems of the 20th century, persistent and painful reminders of humanity’s propensity for separation and violence, were miraculously transformed within a year of each other, from 1989 to 1990. Both apartheid in South Africa and the Berlin Wall began to unravel after decades of seemingly hopeless diplomacy and struggle, at the same time. Why?

Probably because a bit more than two years earlier, on the first World Healing Day, December 31, 1986, literally millions of people across the globe gathered at the same moment in time — not the same time of day, but the same moment, noon Greenwich Mean Time, 4am in Los Angeles, 3pm in Moscow — to imagine a world at peace.

To make room for miracles in your life, you first need to have the courage to ask for help from a Higher Power, rather than simply deciding that a solution to your dilemma is impossible. And then, spend time imagining the result you want — not how to get there, just the result — and you will have created space for your miracle to take place.

Letting Go
Sure, sometimes God or the Universe or whoever is in charge of miracles, will wrestle whatever you’re struggling with out of your grasp long enough to create a miracle for you. However, it makes the whole process easier if you just remember, after you’ve asked for a miracle, to let go.

Letting go means no peeking, no worrying, fully and freely placing your request in the hands of the larger forces of the Universe, and getting busy with something else.

It also means letting go of resistance. Healers often comment that it’s far easier to heal animals, even to completely erase the presence of dangerous cancers, than it is to heal humans. Maybe it’s because animals don’t block miracles by believing that healing is impossible.

Faith or Trust
One of the reasons avatars or spiritual masters like Jesus and Mohammed were able to work miracles was their absolute faith in the divine force that makes the miracles possible.

In truth, all that’s required is that you suspend disbelief long enough to let a miracle in, and to simply be willing to allow your Higher Power to create a real miracle, a solution to your ‘impossible’ dilemma that is beyond your ability to imagine.

And if you can learn to relax enough to trust that the Universe will provide you what you need when you need it — all the time — then you’re home free.

Everyday Miracles
To make room for miracles in your own life, start noticing the small ones that are taking place all around you. Coincidence and synchronicity are small miracles. Sunshine after rain, spring birdsong, a huge thunderstorm, the birth of a child are all miracles.

But the biggest miracle of all is our beautiful blue planet, hung like a jewel in the vastness of space, teeming with life and beauty and miracles every day.