Miracles?

This time each year, my wife and I run a holiday gifting charity that serves a bunch of kids in shelters and temporary living settings around eastern Mass an southern NH. It involves getting the wishes of these kids and hooking them up with about 250 volunteers who then purchase the gifts and get them to a central location so that we can truck them all out to the charities and shelters. In the process of doing that over the past seven years it never fails to provide the opportunity to observe – directly – a miracle.

Last year just as we were bursting at the seams in handling twice as many kids as we ever had, we got a call from a shelter that had heard of our project (Operation ELF) and wondered if we could help them – they had about 70 – 80 kids who were getting little or nothing for Christmas. We couldn’t say no but we said that we often have a few extras that were bought “just in case” so she would be welcome to come at the end of the event and take what was left over. The very next day we got a call from a person who said that she normally took a bunch of presents to an Air Force base in upstate New York but that she was ill and couldn’t make the trip this year – could we use the presents? We said yes, that would be most helpful. She showed up that Sunday with 150 presents and toys for our Elf kids. When the last shelter came for the “leftovers,” we filled two more cars and made a celebration happen where none was even hoped for.

Another one just happened again this year, though the numbers are not officially in yet. However, I begin to wonder is it a miracle? A miracle is what happens when you don’t expect anything. But the nature of god and universe is abundance. It is our scarcity that is always surprised. So why should we be surprised when this happens yet again. Rest assured that we will not slip the other way into arrogance and expect that it should happen. But why should we be surprised by the miracle when it is the natural response of our caring and providing god? Is it a surprise to a child when, having skinned his knee, he gets a hug, kiss and a band aid from a compassionate mother? No – it is just how it happens. Maybe it is a miracle. But the miracle already happened (we are loved despite ourselves), and all this other stuff is just the state of living we get because of it.