Today’s question is motivated by the very touching story appearing on lewrockwell today … about the death of a beloved dog.
Q1: Do you believe miracles are possible?
Q2: Have you personally experienced a miracle?
Note: —- I was going to define what I mean by a miracle. Upon further thought I thought to myself; “Self, who the hell cares what you think a miracle is??” Answer; no one. So, a miracle is whatever you decide it is. If you want to preface your answer (if you have one) with what you believe miracles are, then please do so. If not, that’s OK also.
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ME?
Q1: I have a strict definition of what a miracle is. None of that “miracle of birth” stuff for me. Rather, a miracle is something that breaks the physical laws of the universe (as we know it). For example, things Jesus did; walked on water, calmed storms, made fish and loaves appear out of nothing, raised the dead, and so on.
With that in mind, do I believe in miracles? Theoretically, yes. Let me be as simple and blunt (and, possibly dumb) as possible: God can do whatever the heck He wants.
But, in practice? No.
Q2: No, to the best of my knowledge I have never personally and consciously experienced a miracle. Neither, have I personally witnessed one occurring for someone else. Everything I think I know about miracles comes from second-hand, or tertiary sources.
That’s a shame because I really kinda sorta do want to experientially believe in miracles. I’m hoping some of you folks have an inspiring story to shake the cobwebs from my mind. I could use a miracle right about now … and others here probably could also.
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What Is a Miracle?
By Dr. Naomi Wolf
Mushroom, our beloved and unbelievably elderly dog, finally passed away. There was a day when he simply pulled his snout back sharply at the offer of food, and from then on, his decline was rapid.
There was a day when I would come into the house and find him slouched like a little black and white parcel in unusual places such as the corners of the dining room, or else I’d see him oddly trying to stand behind the wood stove. There were days during which he lay in his bed, curled in a furry round circle as usual, but scarcely moving; the concern, practically the breath, of angels, was palpably over him.
Brian, my husband, made broths, and tried to feed him with a spoon. At last the spoon was refused, and we knew we did not have long with him.
We called two vets; both were compassionate, but brisk, and quick to suggest euthanasia. “There’s a vet service that comes to your house, very sensitively, to put your dog to sleep,” explained one veterinary assistant. “This woman is great — you will love her.”
“I don’t think I’ll love anyone who is coming over to euthanize my dog,” I blurted out.
The other vet, a little less alarmingly, said that if we brought Mushroom to them, we could hug him in the back seat of the car while they “put him to sleep.” With a heavy heart we made the appointment.
That was one of the worst days of Brian’s and my life. We both felt such a sense of wrongdoing, of negative, inharmonious, even profane forces around us.
We tried to prepare the car to take Mushroom to the vet, but everything went wrong. We noticed that the car was out of registration. We messed up the timing of the appointment. I forgot my phone and had to turn back. It seemed that we simply could not bring ourselves to pick up our little friend and take him, tucked comfortably in his favorite yellow blanket, in his warm blue dogbed, to arrange for the end of his life.
When Mushroom seemed to rally a bit and accepted a sip of water, I called the vet and cancelled. “It’s not the right time,” I explained.
Brian and I looked at each other with huge relief. We were each glad the other had reached the same conclusion. “I just can’t take my best friend to be executed,” said Brian.
So we knew that Mushroom would soon die at home, and we tried to make him comfortable and let him know how loved he was.
The days before his decline, as you know, I used to take him out to the bend in the river in the woods across the bridge from our house. I would hold him as he looked at the water – a burbling stretch heading toward a little waterfall — and as he listened to its roaring music. As he faded, he became measurably lighter in my arms, still wrapped in his favorite yellow blanket.
Finally he grew so weak that he could only look at the water for a short time, and then his head would sink as his neck could no longer hold it up. But still he seemed to love that place, and I think he loved being there with me.
The day before he lay down in his bed without getting up, I was amazed at what I saw in the river: as he and I looked at his usual favorite place in the water, there was, unbelievably, a single long-stemmed red rose, just hovering right under the surface of the water, perfectly horizontal. I am not kidding and I am not exaggerating; it was an archetypal bright red rose just in bud, with a long green stem stripped of thorns; the kind of classic red rose that looks as if taken from a bouquet in a 1960s musical set in Paris.
I looked around — from where could it have come? Did someone drop trash from the bridge — and would a single rose have been in the trash and survived, in perfect condition like this? I saw a bit of detritus, so thought that must be the answer, and I called out to ask Brian to come over. “Did someone dump their trash in our river, and this rose somehow was captured in this place in the water? Or is it a miracle?” I half-jokingly asked him.
He looked at the perfect bloom hovering just under the water, unmoving, though powerful currents poured around it. “What’s a miracle?” he asked.
Every day I went down to the river as Mushroom was sinking, and then as he was dying. To my astonishment, the rose stayed just where it was for ten days. There were rains, and snow and hail. The rose stayed put. The cold water must have kept it from decaying, because while its petals slowly opened, they did not bruise or tear or fade. Two branches, improbably, formed the shape of a cross over the hovering, water-held rose.
The last night of Mushroom’s life, I stayed upstairs. We both had murmured to him our different messages of comfort and farewell; I had whispered into the soft, barely warm fur on top of his head that it was okay, he had been such a good dog, that Rosa and Joe were big now, that he had taken such good care of us all, and that we loved him, and that he could go now if he needed to.
Brian was tending to Mushroom. I fell asleep upstairs at last. At a few minutes past midnight, I felt Brian’s hand on my shoulder: “he’s gone.”
#####
The days after that were painful. There was an aching quality to the house. We awaited now his ashes from the vet, and we planned to scatter them by the place where he used to love to look at the water.
Brian took the bone-shaped name-tag that read “Mushroom”, and nailed it to the tree that overlooked that bend in the river. He put Mushroom’s blue plastic bowl down at the foot of the tree, weighted it with glass marbles, and filled it with water. Deer now came out of the woods, delicately, to drink from the blue bowl.
A day or so after Mushroom’s passing, the rose was still in the water. But now it started to release its petals. I am telling the truth.
The second night after Mushroom died, I had that horrible feeling you have when you are a mom and you dream that you have misplaced your baby. I had cared for Mushroom for so long, and then Brian had joined me in caring for him, and now we could not care for him in any way. I started to tear up and tried to pray. “God, please take care of my little dog,” I began, but that did not sound right. It felt like the wrong job description. God is super busy.
I am Jewish, and I have no idea who Mary really is, but some time ago I stopped trying to fit spiritual needs into boxes with labels. It just came to me in that moment to try again; so I prayed, “Mother Mary, please look after my little dog.”
And I wept and wept, but felt comforted. Surely she would.
That night I dreamt that Mary showed me the empty physical body of Mushroom, truly spent, almost broken with age. It was not a kindness to wish him back inside that body. And she then showed me with a gesture a lovely sight — Mushroom, but in a just-grown-past-puppy body, sleeping peacefully, the warmth of health and youth on him again. Wherever he was, he was fine.
“What’s a miracle?” Did my subconscious produce a meaningless wish fulfillment, a fairy tale for me, just when I needed one, as Dr Freud would have maintained? Maybe. Did an answer from the universe produce itself, making use of a symbol system that brought me comfort, just when I needed it to do so? Maybe.
Did a neighbor dump trash in our river that led to a rose hovering just under the water for ten days while our dog was dying? Maybe. Did the universe show us a symbol of perfect resilience, renewal and beauty, just when we needed it? Maybe.
Why must these possibilities be dichotomous? Why must it be either/or? Perhaps the world in which we live is one in which all of these things can be true at once.
The rose had teased my consciousness; the mystery of its appearance led me to look at saints, and at Mary figures bearing roses. I learned that St Therese is “the little Flower,” and that many believe that St Therese and Mother Mary will grace a petitioner with an unexpected rose in response to prayer. Seeing the images online, when I searched, of beautiful saintly women, or of the Divine Mother herself, holding roses in their arms, was a balm.
As someone who had nurtured a little being, I needed to see a Divine Mother caring for us, and maybe even caring for the little creatures of this world, into the next.
My own faith tradition did not have this kind of figure; but did that really matter? Are these divisions even relevant any more? Was the miracle the rose itself — or the fact that I noticed it enough to learn about other ways the Divine Mother may possibly manifest in this often-suffering world?
A few weeks before Mushroom started to fade, I was walking down our rural street; I was wrestling in my thoughts with the vast crimes committed against humanity – by Pharma, by Davos, by Tech, perhaps by Satan Himself; crimes whose documentation and witness are part of the work I do every day these days.
I felt completely overwhelmed; that any strength or skills I might have were insignificant against the monumental powers arrayed against humanity, and that I could not see a way to victory, let alone to survival of all the things we hold dear as free men and women. I was at the end of my ability to see a way ahead. “How can we ever overcome such adversaries?” I asked — Whoever was out there.
The road had been dark, as evening was falling, and the Taconic mountain range had been in shadow. But as I glanced up, the entire massive range of mountains lit up slowly, from one end to the other, with a blazing golden light. All of it — half a state’s length of pure gold light overspread the entire face of the mountain range, and extended hundreds of feet high into the evening sky.
I started laughing.
It was as if God was saying, “Don’t be so silly. Just look at me.”
Was the depth of my despair answered by a massive blaze of gold, just when I needed a miracle?
Or was the miracle simply that I happened to look up and notice something I usually overlook – that miracles are simply all around us?
Or could it be both?
What is a miracle?
Not one of the alleged miracles performed by Jesus defied the laws of Nature.
For example, turning water into wine is precisely what happens. It rains, the grapes grow, they are pressed into juice, it is fermented, boom, wine. He simply sped up the process.
So yeah, miracles happen, pretty much all the time. We’re just too ungrateful and ignorant to notice.
Alleged miracles ? And raising the dead happens everyday… common as idiot speak on the interwebz..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_syndrome
Of course you would…
Are Miracles Even Possible?
The Resurrection of Jesus (A Miracle?)
From the article HF posted;
“Medical literature has recommended observation of a patient’s vital signs for five to ten minutes after cessation of resuscitation before certifying death.”
Lazarus was dead for 3 days! In fact, he was decomposing, and was stinky already. “Lazarus Syndrome” does not apply here.
Hi Stucky,
You said “Rather, a miracle is something that breaks the physical laws of the universe (as we know it)”
Made me think a bit. If the physical laws as we know them are true and born out by empirical fact taking it from the theoretical all the way through the process of questioning and then holding up to rigid scrutiny thus making it a fact, then by all physical law we probably shouldn’t even exist. In other words, maybe by virtue of this fact that I cant see the forest through the trees is denial of the greatest miracle of them all, Life. Unique, elegant and undeniable. I guess what I am trying say so ineloquently is that creation is a miracle and that maybe I don’t take the time to realize it for what it truly is, a miracle not coincidence, in direct violation of all physical laws. Second Law of Thermal Dynamics(Entropy) comes to my mind.
Anyway, good question for the masses to ponder. Thanks
John 11:39 is what you are alluding to. Martha, Lazarus’ sister said “…by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead FOUR days”. Verse 53, confirmation that the fate of Jesus took off in earnest. John 11 only 2 pages (more or less) in my KJV. Fairly straightforward ‘English’. No bad place to start reading the bible. The wording can be difficult. Found this site, KJV verbatim with explanation in plain english, margins are ‘tight’. newer version out there. The header place to start imo.
https://bible-studys.org/
On the money… the Maker has control over His creation, in every way He desires… Whether He breaks those laws or manipulates them are solely His prerogative.
Romans 9:20
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
Boom!
From all the down votes, anything “religious” sure brings out the anger and incredulous remarks by some of the regulars here.
Whenever I see or hear anger when discussing Jesus or anything biblical, it is usually because that person is probably feeling some self condemnation. (Oh boy, did I just open up a can of sh%^ fest!).
People exist at all stages of development.
Yepper…couldn’t have said it better.
This is why my argument with atheists/agnostics is that they always try and separate God from Science, as if they are separate things. Science, math, biology, etc., are all part of God’s toolkit!
Yes and yes…
I was driving down I-5 in Seattle in the 1970s heading toward the racetrack and had just passed the Boeing plant when a multi-car accident started to unfold in front of me, and a smashup was inevitable…suddenly everything froze and I was able to drive around the accident ..then normal time returned…I mentioned this on Steve Sailer’s blog a while back, and another guy said he had a similar experience on the New York Thruway…This sort of thing is also discussed in Gladwell’s book Blink..
yes time suspends or slows way down when you are in imminent danger, it has also happened to me, San Jose freeway, engine froze up at 70MPH, we spun around in the middle of the hwy 3 times, never once got hit by any passing cars, and without flipping over or rolling, ended up in the one spot that wasn’t blocked off by guardrails, we just looked at each other and went wow, guardian angels huh?
The closest thing I have experienced to a “miracle” is when I lost a set of keys while skiing down Mont Tremblant. Sometime during the long day of mogul skiing on any one of dozens of trails they must have worked their way out of a tear that had developed on the inside of my pocket, and fallen somewhere along the miles of snow-covered trails without my knowledge. Imagine my shock at the end of the day when I reached for them and they were not there. The miracle? Someone, somewhere, somehow, had found them and brought them to the lost and found. To me, that was about as close to a miracle as I could envision.
Q1 : Yes
Q2 : I’m still alive
I fear the time I will lose my Dog.
I have had a dog in my life since I was a kid and have buried many. It never gets easy.
Me too. Always had a dog. Lost too many and it never is easy. Such loyal amazing creatures.
Right along with all of his infinite psychobabbel knowledge…..cocaine addict Sigmund Freud did too!
“He turned water to whiskey –
That’s what the preacher say
Lord I need a miracle –
To get me thru the day”
fr. John Law Burned Down the Liquor Store
1 Yes
2 Yes
Perhaps I can call my situation a miracle.
One time I walked around 2 days with a cerebral hemorrhage the size of a hard-boiled egg before I went to the hospital. I had to learn how to talk all over again, but I made a full recovery.
It may not be a miracle, but the chances of going back to normal after one of those is that of a snowball in hell. I’ll have to say I believe in miracles.
Believe it not, I’m a spiritual man. They talk about people who are the right hand of God, but I consider myself one of those of his left hand. I consider myself a marked man in that regard. I don’t know what purpose I will fulfill, but I will tell you this: I no longer fear death, and welcome the situation where I stare death right in the face.
I’ve personally experienced two separate and immediate physical healings through prayer in Jesus name by the laying on of hands of the Church elders.
One was from an over two decade long bout of on again off again benign vertigo effect that would at times literally incapacitate me to the point of not being able to get out of bed or walk for days at a time.
My immediate supervisor got wind of it and had me immediately suspended pending work clearance by a neurologist. Since the above prayer I have not had a single recurrence in approximately 15 years.
The second healing was of a back injury. It was immediate during the prayer and I could literally feel heat rising up along my spine as it occurred during the prayer. Afterward it was as if nothing was ever wrong with me.
Completely gone never to return.
All praise be to God the Father in the name of Jesus.
’75 was a good year, as 70’s years went. Jefferson Starship. The Red Octopus album. Marty Balin wrote it, led the vocals (with just right help from Grace). I talked my aunt into buying the album & after she listened to the song she said it was a little too risque. One of the first songs I practiced. Got real good with it, but never could match that long hold section (always wondered if Balin actually did that, or some trickery was involved).
Miracles are a youthful indiscretion that songs spread over hormones can/do aid & abet. Time came I put away childish things, quit the whip, became a real mayo man – which I usually mix with good mustard.
They treated Marty like shit.
RIP Marty Balin
Didn’t know about the treatment per se, but bands aren’t all that often all for one & one for all – just like most other human groupings.
Balin had a heluva voice.
The only miracle I’ve experienced is that I’m still alive after all the stupid shit I’ve done during my life. Thank ya Jesus!
I can attest to that thought! Jesus kept me from killing myself until he could save me. 140 MPH accident ending at a utility pole, vehicle torn in half by an 80 MPH Amtrak train and the list extends from here. Saved March 6, 1983 at Calvary Baptist Church.
This is one of the best videos out there on why sin is such a destructive force (eternal darkness) and the healing power of being connected to God ( the light source).
Does God Send People to Hell?
Mr. Rawles, the Survivor, claims that ‘double predestination’ is just a fact. In other words, if you are destined to go to Hell, they’re is nothing you can do to avoid it.
The above only proves that some card-carrying, certified theologians are nitwits.
God has never sent anyone to Hell as he has no desire to send anyone there. God sent his only Son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins as a payment so you did not have to go to Hell. You send yourself to Hell by neglecting or rejecting his simple offer of the blood of his Son to make an atonement for your lost soul. Repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
People send themselves to hell.
God only rubber stamps their personal choice.
If you are of the Orthodox faith, you will believe that hell is a place with a total absence of God. That is my take on it.
Separation from God forever is the definition of Hell.
Well I can think of many miracles straight off the top of my head. As per Stucky’s definition: ‘a miracle is something that breaks the physical laws of the universe‘, here are three events which would certainly qualify:
Lee Harvey Oswald firing a bullet that turned 180 degrees and hit JFK from the front (after passing through the car windshield), and 911 where 3 enormous skyscrapers came down at freefall speed, collapsing neatly into their own footprints. (This after the additionally miraculous aerobatic maneuvering of a couple of untrained illiterates).
The third would be the conversation Nixon had with the Apollo 11 lads while they were standing on the moon – a phone call in 1969 over a distance of approximately 240 000 miles in which there was virtually no delay.
S-band comm link operates at light speed. One-way delay was about 1.3 seconds. This neglects the (analog) modulation/mixing/demodulation time that would only add a few milliseconds at most, even using 1960s radio/microwave tech. (Plus the one-way delay for a landline phone from WDC to Goldstone CA, which is about 10 ms.)
• Earth-moon comm delay
• clearly delayed conversation
Q1: Yes, I take it metaphorical mostly: a miracle is something that is an extreme probabilistic outlier, in a positive way.
Q2: I experienced something myself, that at the very least classifies as a small miracle – and I only realized it a few years later.
2 possibilities. Sleight of hand. The other a bit less likely, Satan is a very powerful being and will deceive many. Twisting a solid glass stem is for man, impossible.
Matter, material substance that constitutes the observable universe and, together with energy, forms the basis of all objective phenomena.
And if a human can do that, then there is theoretically no limit to what he may be able to do. That’s why the physical speed limit law say “absolutely not” thou shall not bend the laws of physics to thine desire lest abominable things begin to happen.
I can imagine more than one of my professors simply asking “How?”
Miracles, solid yes to both questions. I will relate one. I’ll try to be as brief as possible
My injuries prevent me from working, especially in winters. My wife was working at a local hardware store and the pay barely covered monthly bills. Our ‘residence’ was a 1070’s double wide with 2 inch walls and sliding glass windows, single pane. So freezing in the winter and an oven in summer.
Every fall we’d fill the oil tank for winters heating and generally about mid January we’d have to fill it again. This particular winter we didn’t have the money to fill the tank and we were going to a home bible study where miracles of the big flashy kind were asked for often.
I’d dipped the tank sometime 2 – 3rd week of Jan and there was twelve inches of oil in the tank. So usable oil was 10 inches because of a two inch stand off. Simple math says I had just over a weeks worth of heating in the house.
We prayed a simple prayer asking God for provision to meet our need and gave Him THANKS. Each morning the furnace kicked on at around 7am while I was reading His word. And, when the furnace kicked on I would speak aloud the acknowledgment of the furnace starting and give God the thanks for His provision.
Mid February, my furnace is still coming on every morning and running all day. We shared with our Bible study group what was happening because they were always asking God for the big flashy, raise the dead, replace missing limbs miracles. Each week they’d ask about anyone seeing Gods provisions and miracles. I’d bring up that my furnace is still running, every morning and all day long. Shoulda been out of oil a month ago. They accused me of adding oil to the tank and my wife set them straight.
Mid march… still going… Then in mid July when I was mowing the lawn and went by the tank of oil it struck me to dip the tank. So I did… When I pulled the stick out al looked at it I was immediately humbled, elated and very thankful. I took the stick to show my wife and on the way over I asked her how much oil did we have in Jan when I dipped the tank. She stated, ‘I think about 12 inches’. I walked over and showed her the stick… 12 inches of wet oil showing on the stick… We both praised God and thanked Him again for his miraculous supply. And our bible group was incredulous which they all, 6 couples, quit meeting over the next few weeks.
Nice miracle and a one off, never repeated again you might say. But you’d be wrong. It happened again two years after this year. This is only one of MANY miracles we’ve personally experienced. We follow scripture. We let our needs be known, trust Gods provisional hand, and give thanks everyday for meeting our needs.
Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
My life is a miracle. That I’ve lived thru some things is a miracle. That I am who I am today is because of miraculous interventions. I’ve been having some conversations about trust and God’s will and doing my best to follow the: ‘not my will but thy will be done’ in some special situations these days. MIracles come in all sizes and shapes, little miracles and big miracles. Sometimes unfortunate events can be miraculous in retrospect.
You have not known the power of God’s love until, in a moment of deep despair going out and sinking to my knees in a pasture on a cold, overcast and cloudy day and asking for help and having one single ray of light shine on me. My head and a small circle of light around me while everywhere else was dark and cloudy. I know miracles personally and if you open up your heart, you will as well.
When we are at times in deep despair and cry out to God… he answers…
During my time on fentanyl I would go thru deep depression. I, on several occasions loaded one of my hand guns and had one under my chin to pull the trigger. Phone rang. Was a friend and the chatter was about nothing, but when he’d hung up I’d forgot what I was doing. Another time I couldn’t decide which gun to use because any gun used in a suicide gets destroyed. There are more…
I am very thankful my Father intervened, otherwise I would have failed my family… and I cannot do that willingly. I have come to know God and trust Him completely thru all this… Which I would never have learned otherwise… to much pride and toxic masculinity…
Happy to hear of your rescue… its awesome…
Happy to hear of your rescue… its awesome…
Yours as well. Blessings to you…
brian…just had a chance to read through the longer comments. Glad you are still here. And, there’s no such thing as toxic masculinity…but you know that already. 🙂
Wonderful story! Amen.
Thanks for sharing that story with us, Brian. I got a smile on my face when I read it.
The flour pointed toward the ‘bread’ that feeds the soul.
Jhn 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
and
Jer 15:16
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
That’s a great story.
I cannot comprehend how anyone cannot believe in God – the miracle is our very existence. Our minds are so feeble that we cannot even begin to understand His ways…take the concept of time for example. Try to imagine time does not exist – impossible. As far as hell goes, I do not believe the PUNISHING is eternal, but the PUNISHMENT is.
I always enjoyed the joke that has the punchline “Get your own dust”. A lot of truth in that one.
Sure, because I’m existing now, an omnipotent being that my mind has no way to comprehend would also exist as well. Yea, whatever…
I can see why you would want to be Anonymous, but He knows. You will find out the truth , I just hope you find it while you’re still breathing.
Unfortunately, your “truth” hardly has any ground to stand on. I would not want to reject the evidence of my eyes and ears, believing long established imagination to be “truth.”
“And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying,
‘Come and see.’ and I saw, and behold a white horse”
There’s a man goin’ ’round takin’ names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won’t be treated all the same
There’ll be a golden ladder reachin’ down
When the man comes around
The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup
Or disappear into the potter’s ground?
When the man comes around
Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin’
Multitudes are marchin’ to the big kettledrum
Voices callin’, voices cryin’
Some are born and some are dyin’
It’s alpha and omega’s kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks
Till armageddon no shalam, no shalom
Then the father hen will call his chickens home
The wise man will bow down before the throne
And at his feet they’ll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around
Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still
Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still
Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still
Listen to the words long written down
When the man comes around
Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin’
Multitudes are marchin’ to the big kettledrum
Voices callin’, voices cryin’
Some are born and some are dyin’
It’s alpha and omega’s kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn trees
It’s hard for thee to kick against the prick
In measured hundredweight and penny pound
When the man comes around
“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked, and behold a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him”
Songwriters: John Cash
Man comes around lyrics © BMG Rights Management
===========================================
i weighed 2 lb 4oz at birth. 1958. dropped to 1 lb. spent 70 days in incubator.
read the Gospel of St Thomas.
the actual words that Jesus spoke.
declared as blasphemy by the Vatican.
When I was a driver instructor, I had many close calls, and my intuition and skill prevented many accidents. But this one stands out as a pure miracle as it broke all laws of physics. Early in the day I had discovered that my instructor brake was not working right. A student was driving in the right lane on a rainy day which greatly increases the distance needed to stop. We were going 35 and a car came out of the street right in front of us, about 30 feet. Not enough room to stop, especially with my faulty brake. Traffic was busy and I could see a car just to the left getting ready to pass us. I was oh shit. This is not going to be good. But anything is better than a direct hit. I just swung my hand to the wheel and moved us over to the left lane. We missed the car in front of us by an inch, and somehow, we missed the car to the left of us too. It was right there. Student and I were both shocked that we missed them all. I think it was two miracles and divine protection. One was my hand being guided to do exactly the right thing. The other was both cars being right there and missing them.
Yes.
Yes. In a torrential downpour, my niece jumped into a raging creek to save a calf. She immediately went under and must have gulped in a lot of water as soon as her head went under because her step-mom and dad pulled her out and her body was already lifeless; no pulse, no heartbeat. She was gone. They started CPR and saved her. Sounds like nothing? First responders know how seldom CPR works on actual drowning victims in this type situation. Two weeks later, it’s like it never happened. She remembers none of it and there was no follow-on lung infection.
Yes, definitely believe in miracles and believe we’re surrounded by them every day. But, most do not have the eyes or awareness to notice.
One miracle I experienced had to do with my grandfather three days after he passed. Long story, so won’t get into it, but it was profound.
Another is someone else’s story. I met a cardiologist years ago. He repeatedly told me stories of things happening on his operating table that he could not explain from a medical perspective. He had patients that should have died on that table, but miraculously survived and left him in awe. He would say that patients come to see him to get better, but he was not the one in charge of their fate. Being a doctor and witnessing these miracles himself strengthened his faith in God. He was also instrumental in my conversion from atheism…and that’s a miracle, right? I do believe God places certain people in our life for a reason.
You nailed it… we all see many miracles around us but most won’t see or recognize them, discounting as coincidence. In my experience the more I give God credit for His provisions and even trials the more I see His hand in our lives.
Second thing you nailed is indeed the best. The miracle of being saved from death and seeing the transformation of others being rescued. I was a wee wild back in the day. God rescued me from myself and we found a good church. After a couple years the wife of a couple we got to know well spoke up one day. She stated that when we first came to the church I terrified her. She stated my eyes were hard and violence was just beneath the surface. She then stated that she no longer saw that anymore. Boy had I fooled them or what… kidding. I actually didn’t know how to respond… But I did later Thank Christ for the changes…
That’s amazing, brian. I love hearing how God changes people.
“She stated my eyes were hard and violence was just beneath the surface.”
I’ve seen this before. The last man on earth that I thought would ever believe in God is my dad…so, yeah, another miracle. We’re all on different journeys and I believe God takes us through times of struggle to bring us closer to Him. I really do believe that.
I was an 18 year alcoholic and user of marijuana and hash hish. The night I trusted Christ as Savior that was the end of my addictions. Never slipped back one time in 39 years. God is beyond good! My life has been full and complete and I know my time left on this planet is short but I am looking forward to seeing Christ with my eyes instead of by faith.
You and me both brother looking to the day when we see Christ face to face… Then exploring the new Heavens and Earth from top to bottom….
Does neuroscience show consciousness emerges from a brain? We show a wealth of data suggests the opposite. The mind does not appear to be reducible to matter.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
I am Soul, instead of I have a Soul.
…thus the old mayday declaration of SOS (Save Our Souls). Ship disasters and early plane crashes report having x number of souls aboard.
Veery well said. Big miracles are awesome and inspire us. But subtle miracles show Gods love and blessings as well.
A sign in a medical office I use says, Doctors treat, God heals. Very true!
I have, indeed, experienced eight miracles in an entropic universe, Stuck: Birth, touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste, ideation, and healing.
You might appreciate this Doug:
Jordan Peterson has said a couple of times, that right out there at the very edge of his imagination, he has an intimation that “death is the friend of being.”
That always brought to mind something Stephen King said in “Doctor Sleep” which is a sequel to the shining. In it Danny Torrence, is grown up and still has his “Shine” which is very rare for adults to keep. He also has his father’s penchant for alcohol in spades. In the first couple of chapter’s he hits rock bottom, moves to a small town in Maine (surprise, surprise) and finds sobriety and some form of redemption in working as an orderly in a hospice center. Of course, that is not his sole purpose there. With the help of a cat (its King after all) he knows which patient is about to die and enters there room and his uses his Shine to help Shepard them across the threshold of death.
King describes one such event in some detail, culminating in the line:
“Death was no less a miracle than birth.”
Probably so, Drud, and we will all experience that on our final day.
In the meantime, I will change my list to nine: Birth, touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste, ideation, growing, and healing.
You know, things we have now, like your PC or that airplane, could have been considered miracles a hundred years ago. So, yea, miracles do exist and we are making them each day.
“So yeah,miracles happen,pretty
much all the time. We’re just to ungrateful and ignorant to notice”. HSF pretty much sums it up for me. That puts me in pretty good company.
That said Stucky is a bastard for repeating sob stories about dogs. Dogs are good and do not have evil in them. I think some are angels with fur.
They ARE angel with fur. I have a very old one who may not last the month. Now you are going to make me cry. dammit.
There is no spoon.
Matrix – Great Movie IMHO
Mostly there is no spoon, according to superposition. Mostly.
“But the fact is—and I think this genuinely takes a lot of people by surprise—enough dedicated “conditioners” in the right places can work miracles, especially if they’re laboring unopposed.”
Is this two birds & a stone or are the objects de lessons just one thing immortal & the going around coming back around just a matter of a not comprehensive enough perspective?:
“Her (Anne Royall) books, as was typical of the time, describe the roads, her travelling companions, the countryside & farms, & the cities with their museums & institutions. But she had a reputation for being quite frank concerning the people she encountered on her sojourns. She detailed their manner & appearance, at times in an unflattering light: “The Tennessean was a middle-aged man, of the inferior order, he was ugly, ignorant, & in short, he was a complete boor.” She also penned denigrating descriptions of prominent figures – a tendency that her biographer, Elizabeth Clapp, suggests was an outgrowth of her brusque & confrontational manner. Royall had a reputation for being prickly, so much so, Clapp notes, that her essential womanhood was challenged in public. “She is no woman at all,” declared New England writer john neal, “but a stout, saucy, swaggering, two fisted chap, with a skull of his own, who having a mind to live an easy life & be impudent with safety, has turned author, & equipped himself in petticoats for protection.”
At the time Royall faced charges for being a scold, she was between travels & living in Washington, DC. Her second-story rooms happened to be near a congregation of Presbyterians, & their dealings with Royall in the neighborhood were contentious. Royall reserved a particular ire for Presbyterians, who were fierce promulgators of the evangelical movement, which sought to reassert women’s traditional place in the home. In their grievance against her, they accused her of harassing the congregation from her window as they headed for church. She had, church leaders claimed, particularly unnerved the women of the congregation. Clapp notes: “They charged that Royall had used ‘opprobrious & indecent language to respectable females & Gentlemen when on the publick street, whilst going to publick worship.’ Moreover she had uttered ‘other malicious & false sayings & writing such as Thief, Villain, Hypocrite, etc. etc. to the Great annoyance of Females.”
Royall was convicted of being a scold & sentenced to the ducking stool decades after the stocks & whipping post had disappeared from the market squares of American cities. Her lawyer argued that the punishment was inappropriate, & the judge agreed. He fined her $10 & charged that she behave well for a year, demanding another $250 in surety for that year. A woman’s silence, after all, was intimately linked with obedience.
Though Royall was spared a ducking, the newspapers at the time delighted in imagining it. One editor suggested that she deserved far more than public humiliation. He seemed to recommend the ultimate silencing for Royall – a sentence of death – when he proposed that “perhaps from two to four hours will be thought long enough for her to remain underwater” for her crime of speaking her mind. That at a time when public shaming & punishment had been done away with for highway robbers & horse thieves, & in the same year the penitentiary was being prepared to sequester such offenders in their individual stone cells, away from all observation & humiliation.” ~ Silence: A Social History of One of the least Understood Elements of Our Lives, Jane Brox
Q1. Yes, I do believe in miracles. I know of a few personally. A co-worker who had stage 4 cancer and was told by his doctor to put all his affairs in order as he only had several months to live. He was on multiple large prayer lists, his church, and mine included. This was 10 years ago. He is healthy and alive and has no trace of cancer.
Q2. I’ve had answered prayer that may or may not be considered a miracle. On a personal level, my wife prayed that I would change my mind about having children. (This is a second marriage for both of us. 4/10 it will be 29 years). I was totally against it as I went through a very bad divorce and had already fathered 2 children and I paid through the nose. I was fearful of it happening again. Anyway, 2 months after she started praying about it (and was not talking to me about it) I had a change of heart and the fear left me. I had a reversal on my vasectomy and 3 months later she was pregnant with our now, 26 year old daughter who is a blessing.
God is good!
Pre wide spread use of GPS, I had just picked my wife and kids up from Logan airport in Boston. The big dig was still ongoing so the Bill Buckner bridge (93 north I think) was periodically closed. When this happened, the detour dumped you out right in the middle of downtown Boston. It was dark and torrentially raining. I had no idea how to get back on my route. Stopped at a light, I heard a honk coming from my right. I rolled my window down. It was a cabbie — who signaled that I ought to follow him. He had no way of knowing I was lost and I had no way of knowing why he wanted me to follow him. But I did. We swerved through the city; made probably 15 turns. As we approached an obscured on ramp, he slowed down and pointed left. He stayed put. I took it. It was right where I needed to be. I do not know if that is a miracle but I can not explain it.
Get back to me after full gallows and bloody guillotines exist outside every government office building, media headquarters, and medical center around the globe.
Miracles or messages…
years ago watching my 6 year old granddaughter wave at my fathers empty rocking chair.
hearing my Mothers voice say ” Hi it’s me ” on my aunt’s voicemail a week after she passed
The Irish is strong in my family.
Listen to yourselves. Sorry fucking excuse . It ain’t no execution, its being their when the light is turned off. Hopefully somebody will be there for me if needed. Don’t keep me alive just to make you feel better. I think that maybe a few mushrooms were consumed in the making of this tale. Carry on.
You might want to give up on the shrooms… search for something more substantial, something with everlasting peace and joy… Something far deeper than you small mind can comprehend…
Isaiah 55:8 -9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
I can think of two. One- I was born with no bones in my legs. Now I’ve read about other people like this but I have yet to find a case where they grew in on their own. I took my first steps when I was four. I’ve told a few doctors about this and they look at me like I’m trying to pull something over on them.
Tw0- as the culmination of a domestic violence situation someone leveled a shotgun at me and pulled the trigger. The distance was fairly short, maybe 30 feet. We picked buckshot out of the wall behind where I was standing for weeks. NONE of it hit me.
KaD- I have always felt that you are a messenger. I too say wow, God is good.
I’d like your opinion on this.
Some people who have studied biology might not believe you, but I have studied enough that I do.
Re #2 I am sorry, but very, very glad for you.
Re #1 I have never heard of that and don’t believe it without seeing radiographic proof. Sorry.
I wore a strange brace when I was a toddler, my mother still has it. I positioned me like I was doing the splits, and ended at my knees so they bent and my legs hanged out. The Cleveland Clinic wanted to do exploratory surgery but an old family doctor told my mother that this had something to do will mineral deficient well water in Europe and that it was something that happened once in seven generations. I have NO clue where he got that info from but I have seen some research indicating that lack of nutrition can effect genetics.
That’s fascinating. Did all the bone finally grow into “place” or was there additional support later in childhood?
Beautiful story. It brought tears to my eyes, and as have many of you have experienced, it hurts deeply to lose a pet.
I have a story that I believe is a small miracle. About a decade ago, my niece was visiting from TX. She knows of my Christian beliefs (she’s an atheist). On the last day of her visit, the subject of God came up (this is where she proclaimed her atheism). Right after the conversation in which I told her God is real, she left for the airport.
The next morning, she texted me “OMG Aunt Meg we need to talk!” So I called her. She said as the passengers were waiting to exit the plane, a girl came up to her and said to my niece, “Hi, this may sound wierd, but I was praying and God told me to give you my Bible”. She was shocked. I don’t think she took it seriously in the manner that I took it. I received the blessing. At least I know seeds were planted.
I’ve been that person on several occasions. At the scene of car accidents, one person who had a seizure and didn’t know where he was, one with diabetic shock, a lady who didn’t know she was having a heart attack (she lived!), and another time I took an odd route and met a lady who was afraid of an upcoming surgery, I was able to calm her mind by telling her about a friend of mine who had just had the same surgery.
I’m truly sorry for her loss. But if you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.
Best book on miracles I have ever read. Her story of being rescued by dolphins is incredible. I heard her tell the tale in person, and her story telling tales are also awesome.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17140496-inner-guidance
The Book of Angels by Sophia Burnham has many personal stories in it that are amazing. In one case a couple watched their child get hit by a car and thrown. She hit the ground and was rolling towards a manhole without a cover when she stopped suddenly. At the hospital she said to her parents “Didn’t you see the angel in the hole that stopped me from falling in?”
Why is there something instead of noting?
As I have said here many times, ALL things are possible with God. Call it a miracle or just accept it as natural.
It will be a miracle if we are victorious against the cabal that want to destroy the greater part of humanity. I believe in miracles and I believe we are going to survive this war between good and evil.
Q1: Yes, I do believe in miracles.
Q2: I experience a miracle on 3 occasions. First, as a child following a tonsillectomy. The stitches in my throat broke and I nearly bled to death while sleeping. My mother woke during the night from a touch on her shoulder and came to check on me. She found blood on my pillow and woke me up. I threw up a blood as she rushed me to the ER. Docs said I would not have survived until morning. Mom swears the touch was from a guardian angel (unsure if it was hers or mine). Second, as a high school footballer, I used bad form in making a tackle breaking my fifth cervical vertebrae. I survived thanks to the incredible skill of two wonderful surgeons. Third, I suffered a heart attack at the age of 40. (My father had passed at age 43 from a heart attack.) My main coronary artery (aka the widowmaker) was 98% blocked and a second artery was 100% blocked. I could have died as my father had, but God had different plans for me. I have since been married for 35 years and raised 2 beautiful daughters who have gifted me with 2 grandsons with more on the way.
Life itself is definitely a miracle.
I hope you are encouraged my friend Stucky. by what you see here. God is indeed active and well involved in the affairs of man. I’m willing to bet you’ve seen some of the same miracles but just didn’t recognize them.
Give thanks… have hope… praying your eyes will be opened…
Thanks Stucky for this post, it’s been great reading all the responses, very uplifting. Awesome what so many have been through, and can testify to God’s amazing grace. It is encouraging, and we sure need that.
Good stuff, ol’ Stucky. Good to see you back. I read Naomi Wolf’s beautiful essay last week. Any of us who has lost a beloved hound would understand. The essay left me pondering the same question. What is a miracle?
I’m really enjoying her work. A one time staunch liberal who has seen the failure on her side, been troubled by the attacks on free speech and open debate of ideas and been welcomed by our side with open arms.
I thought about the line in Pulp Fiction. “When God makes the impossible possible”. That’s one definition.
I disagree with you about one thing. I don’t believe God can defy the physical laws of the universe. It may be because He operates from a higher position that there are ways and means which appear to be beyond our understanding, but God does not break his own laws. If it appears that’s the case it’s because we don’t know all the laws.
Personally, I don’t believe Jesus literally performed miracles. The Gospel miracles are parables designed to tell us something about the Kingdom of God in a form which can traverse time, fashion and translation without losing meaning. For instance, when Jesus turns the water into wine he did not literally transform matter. It is a reference to we commoners, those outside the religious hierarchy, having equal access to God’s grace. In Jewish ritual the priest class purified themselves with wine while only water was available to the masses.
There’s an old Russian joke which gives some insight into what God can and cannot do.
A trainee priest was scheduled to take his final vows. Before the ceremony the bishop asked him some questions.
“Do you acknowledge the omnipotence of God”, he asked.
“No”, replied the would be priest.
The bishop was shocked. “Explain yourself”.
“If I was playing poker with God his pair of deuces could not beat my pair of aces”.
The meaning of the joke is that God cannot break the rules of his own creation, for doing so would make a nonsense of it. And as everything is connected fiddling with one thing would cause everything to change. God created our universe with an initial act and its subsequent evolution is a result of its initial state.
“…where Angels fear to tread”. OK with the big bang theory though? Still working on ‘exceptions’ to work around ‘immutable’.
No worries. Unless you completely deny and drive off the Holy Spirit.
Two clear as day miracles. I was solo in a T-37 at Moody AFB about Apr1970 and lost both jet engines at about 300 ft on takeoff and would have crashed and burned if a voice just behind and to my left had not said: “Check your Boost Pump Switches”. I fell head first off an almost two story roof in Arvilla ND about Apr1978 but a breeze caught me, lifted me up and set me down on my feet on the middle of the roof. I don’t know how I could deserve any miracles, and am telling the Truth so help me God.
As a pilot, you might like “Illusions, story of a reluctant messiah”. As a Christian, maybe not so much.
Got to find and read it first; I’m no messiah and not even a good Christian unfortunately. I would like to start a sect of “heretics” if I had the money that sought the Real Historic and Scientific Truth and maintained a good free reference library (I hate the ownership of things like music); as part of a survivable rural community like a conservative capitalistic Christian Mennonite-cowboy-Amana Kibbutz-Dollywood-University town with an airport.
(Repeat) Thanks, found it and Illusions came out in 1977; I was at my 5th USAF base then. It’s the crap professors assign; I had to read “The man that died”; fiction that Jesus survived and married Mary Magdalene and had a family. …Jesus Christ Superstar…Jews like to slander Christianity. Sorry if you want it to not be real, the T-37 incident was real and I still get the shakes. I don’t understand how there can be a God, why He saves some and not others, how He could be Jesus and Jesus not know all and be able to do everything, why so many seem to be blind and doomed to Hell, why Jesus’ mission was self sacrifice, why things aren’t clearer, why the channel to God is so bad, how given Is 53 and Zech 13 how any Jew could be lost. Vaya con Dios.
I am nurturing a dying dog. Making her feel our love. I know, life goes on, but she is so beautiful I could just cry. I love her so.
So sorry to hear that.
What happened? I know how you love that dog, my sincere condolences.
Miracles and magnets –
Please understand, I continue to thank God for all I’ve been given. Including the easy and challenging issues because I learn what I will never overlook or forget. I can only share what I believe, based upon my own first-hand experience.
YES, I know for an absolute fact miracles DO happen! And of course I have experienced an absolute miracle!
A little while back, I experienced a life-changing altercation. I was traveling from Katy, Texas to North Babylon, Long Island (of all places…go figure).
I stopped in Indiana to wash up & eat, then refuel. I ate, then coming back outside I noticed a terrible driver making a U-turn and nearly struck my vehicle! As I approached, I said something nonchalant…. along the lines of ‘I sure hope that @$$wipe doesn’t hit me. As fate would have it…the bad driver heard what I said & got highly pissed off.
The bad driver stopped immediately, blocking my vehicle. Quick but heated words happened, and I told him…you are a piss poor driver which you are proving to be absolutely true with your piss poor behavior. Now move your vehicle from blocking me in or go your way, otherwise I’m calling the police.
That’s when I was literally stabbed in my head. I fell, bleeding profusely &. (I learned about these details after the fact from the investigating detective, as I was rendered immediately unconscious after being stabbed). I bled out 6 pints of blood in about 2 minutes. The responding police officer called an EMT, who arrived then immediately called for a life flight. I went into the ER, where I was put in the ICU where I remained for two months, comatose. When I was blessed to regain consciousness, I was still in the ICU for about four months. Very few know the immense importance of life until they may experience what I was put thru. I bled out from every orifice of my head: my nose, mouth, both eyes & tear ducts, both ears. From the knife & falling…I got 14 staples to hold the parts together. Yea…technically speaking, it was a TBI (traumatic brain injury). It was so awful…I even had my head drilled & a tube put inside my skull to brain the blood. I was mere hours away from a surgeon removing the top of my head due to brain swelling. I was admitted in May, not released until the following July…hospitalized 14 months.
If not for the love & mercy of God reaching out to save me, heal me and still protects me to this very moment….I could have bled to death in about another minute, maybe less. I won’t even go into the other drastic details BUT…I thank God every day!
In all ways I’m very happy I’m not fertilizing the flowers.
Open up, freely give anyone the love that’s in your heart. Love is what the world needs most, now more than ever before.
Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 14: “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.” And…
Proverbs chapter 17 verse 22: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
I John chapter 5 verse 6: “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.”
Thank You LORD & thank everyone as well. Go in comfort & peace with every step you take.
I sure hope that guy went to prison for attempted homicide.
People should be more loving when behind the wheel.
Had a miracle happen to me as a kid. I was around age 7 or 8. Picked up the Sunday Comics page to read, which was smoldering in my grandfather’s fireplace. It was morning, and last night’s fire was out. I was across the room about 10 feet when it burst into flames in my hands. Instinctively I just pushed it away in panic — insofar as one can ‘push’ an open page of newspaper. It did not fall or flutter to the floor…it zoomed across the room and hit the back wall of the fireplace, where it burned. I have mulled this over the years, and verified the distance as an adult, according to features in the room. This is not a mis-memory of where I was standing, and there is no other explanation available to me. At the moment it happened my young brain ‘knew’ this was angelic intervention, and that is still what I think 45 years later.
That was probably exactly what you think it was; one for the record books for sure!.