MIRACLES

I know – it has been WAY too long since my last blog.  My only explanation is that, while I am perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, I do not seem capable of going through an “art push” and writing at the same time.    However, I wrote down about a dozen ideas for blogs, and am ready to work again, so another post should be coming fairly soon after this one.

The dictionary defines a miracle as a wonderful happening that is contrary to or independent of the known laws of nature.  Many people equate miracles with magic, something appearing out of nowhere, or disappearing for no reason.

While I certainly go along with the “wonderful happening” aspect, I’d like to look at the idea that miracles are contrary to or independent of the known laws of nature.  For the fact is, there are a LOT of things in nature that scientists explain;  they fit into the “laws of nature,” but in truth we really have no idea how they happen.

Most people would probably say that miracles are rare.  But I would have to disagree with that; in fact, miracles abound, but we don’t see them,  because we do not look closely.

Take, for instance, the circumstance of two cells meeting and joining.  They divide, so that the one cellular body they have formed multiplies to become two, then they multiply again, and again, and again, and so on, until there are billions and billions of cells.  This is in itself miraculous.  Scientists can tell you what they see happening – but they really cannot pinpoint exactly what it is that triggers this phenomenon, or what keeps it going.

After the continual multiplication of cells has occurred a sufficient number of times, groups of cells seem to “decide” to change, so they are no longer part of one homogeneous mass of cells.  Some cells become an ear, or skin, or a toenail, an eyeball, a kidney. Scientists have a name for this: cell differentiation.  But they don’t really know what makes it happen.  Not only do the cells do this, but they do it in such a way that a coherent, fully formed body is created, covered by skin, with organs in assigned places, toenails at the end of toes, eyelashes emanating from the eyelids, and blood running through arteries and veins.

And yet the greatest miracles are yet to come.  Eventually, a small group of cells begins to pulsate; they start to beat to a rhythm: lub dub; lub dub; lub dub.  We have no idea what triggers this to happen.  But when it does happen, life pours through the body, blood begins to flow to all the other organs, including the brain, and the body continues to form.

Scientists will explain;  but they don’t know why this phenomenon takes place, what triggers this to happen.

But wait – there’s more!  Within this miraculously formed body is a code.  Every single cell is encoded with all the data necessary to tell the cells what to do, how to function, not only as an individual cell, but as part of a group of cells known as an organ. And further, they are coded to interact with all the other cells, which are also differentiated into organs.  And they acquire, through this encoding, the ability to function like a perfect mechanism.

Every living thing on this planet is a miracle.  I plant a little seed no bigger than a speck.  The seed sprouts, grows roots, and a sprout of a plant pushes up through the earth (a miraculous feat in itself) and soon a creation of color and beauty and unique shape will grow.

Did I say every living thing is a miracle?  Well, even things we might not consider “alive” are also full of motion and life.  Stone – solid, stolid, still – is actually made up of particles that are in constant motion.

Flame.  Now there’s an amazing miracle.  Light a candle and look closely at it. Think about it – our universe is made of flame.  All the stars are gigantic flames.  But what is flame?  What is light?  We really don’t know.

Everything we take for granted as part of our lives – fire, water, leaves, grass…

We are surrounded by miracles..  We are miracles, you and I.  So the next time you want to see a miracle, don’t go to a magic show, or wait for a shooting star.  Just look in a mirror.  Look into your eyes, and you will see the miraculous.