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 Rabbi Levi Meier, PhD
Miracles still take place in our day and age, but people do not always recognize them. As a matter of fact, they usually tend to explain them away as purely scientific events, mass hallucinations, or whatever else might make such things rationally plausible. But a “miracle” is not so much what we see, but how we see it.
I know a lovely young couple, Nick and Marilyn, who were childless for the first thirteen years of their marriage. They underwent numerous evaluations, tests, and procedures, all to no avail. Fertility consultants provided some encouragement to them, but as the years went by, they became less and less hopeful that they would biologically have a child of their own.
One day, in desperation, Marilyn’s sister decided that she would start a prayer campaign on behalf of the couple. On a particular day—March 15—she sat down and wrote or faxed messages to relatives and friends around the world, asking them to pray for Marilyn and Nick. Soon prayers were being recited around the globe for these young people.
A few months later, Marilyn suspected that she was pregnant. In disbelief, she went to her obstetrician, who confirmed the happy news. The doctor also supplied some important information. The baby was due to be born the following March 15—one year to the day from the date the prayer campaign had begun.
I wish that all of our prayers could be answered so positively and so quickly. But, like all mortals, I am limited in what I can understand about Divine providence.
Even in the case of ordinary, nonmiraculous happenings, our perceptions are influenced by what we know, or what we think we know. Sid, a medical resident at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told me a story that confirms this point. During one of his early pediatric rotations, he examined a child who had been diagnosed with an unusual syndrome. As Sid noted some of the symptoms, he said to his supervising physician, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” The supervisor responded, “Oh yes, you have. You just didn’t recognize it.” That is so true of many of our life experiences. If we are not attuned to the greater meaning of an event or encounter, we may not recognize it even when we have the opportunity to do so.
The above excerpt, “Miracles Surround Us,” by Rabbi Levi Meier, PhD, z”l, is from Moses—The Prince, the Prophet: His Life, Legend & Message for Our Lives © 1998 by Levi Meier. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; www.jewishlights.com.
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Rabbi Levi Meier, PhD, z”l, the author of Moses—The Prince, the Prophet: His Life, Legend & Message for Our Lives and Ancient Secrets: Using the Stories of the Bible to Improve Our Everyday Lives (both Jewish Lights), was chaplain of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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