Reaching the word “Miracle” in the book of quotes I’m reading got me to thinking. What is a miracle? Can miracles be explained? Can what was once considered a miracle in one culture and time be explained in another time and culture? Is anything really and truly a miracle? Do miracles occur outside of religious faith?
The most wonderful thing about life is using our minds to ask questions. If those early humans that wandered out of Africa three or four million years ago had never asked questions, I doubt modern humans would exist today, for it is the questions and the answers they promote that drives the progress of mankind. If you never ask the questions, you will surely never get an answer or a solution to your problems. And remember that sometimes the most important question we can ask about anything is, “What if.”
The quote in the miracles section of the book that got me to thinking about miracles was this one by Augustine of Hippo, who lived between 354 and 430 AD. He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity. His quote, “Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known to us about nature.” We know so much more about nature now than in the time of Augustine over 1,500 years ago that many things considered miracles in his day are totally understood today.
So what is a miracle by definition? The dictionary says that a miracle is an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause, and as such is considered the work of God. So by definition miracles are not something that take place outside of religious beliefs. But notice that the definition says “all known human or natural powers.” That word known was what Augustine was talking about. He knew way back then that miracles don’t contradict natural laws and if they seem to it is because we don’t understand or have not yet discovered the reasons some things happen.
“It was a miracle,” is a phrase we hear a lot about things that really are not miracles at all. The tornado spared your home and you say, “It’s a miracle.” It’s too bad about that family next door that didn’t get a miracle. You find something that was lost for a long time, but was finding it really a miracle or just luck. We tend to confuse luck with miracles. If you win a prize in the lottery it was luck not a miracle, regardless of how badly you needed the money. An even if you are cured of some terrible illness, it was the medicine, not a miracle. Even if you are miraculously cured without treatment, as sometimes happens, this just means that we don’t know yet how it happened, but someday we will discover enough about nature to understand.Back in the early 1950’s when I contracted polio and spent a few weeks in Le Bonheur Hospital in Memphis, and then came home without braces or paralysis of any kind, I’m sure that some said it was a miracle. Some of my family and friends may have even prayed to God for a miracle, and thought they saw one when they saw me well and whole. But the boy in the room with me at the hospital was not so “lucky” as I was. Prayers for him did no good and his miracle didn’t arrive. We must always measure what we might think is a miracle by reality and by those others in the same predicament or with the same problem who didn’t receive a miracle. As Augustine said, it is our understanding of nature that prevails in life, not miracles.
What Matters Most……….These three quotes capture for me what a miracle really is.“To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous.” --Abraham Maslow
“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” –Walt Whitman
“There are two ways to live. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” --Albert Einstein
© 2011 #21 Jim High can be reached at P. O. Box 467, Tupelo, MS 38802-0467
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