Tag Archives: miracles

I Need Other People

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So I haven’t been able to find the lid to my coffee mug for weeks. How I have survived is one of life’s little mysteries. Still, it bothered me. The lid shouldn’t be missing. I needed it.

So when I was high-tailing it out of the kitchen, prepping for a mission into town, I happened to mention to daughter #4 with an aimless wave in the direction of the kitchen cabinets, “If you ever find my coffee mu—”

Before I could complete my perfectly manicured English sentence, she climbed a stool, thrust her hand into the dark interior of said cabinet, and held up a mug top that looks strangely like my missing salvation.

“How’d you do that, honey?”

She grinned. “It was right here, mom.”

Yeah. Right. “I only tore that cabinet limb from limb three times looking for—oh, never mind.”

And when my closet door decided to fling itself off the runner and lean like a drunken possum hanging from its tail, it should’ve just slipped back into place when I clicked it onto its proper track. Except it wouldn’t. No matter how hard I shoved, begged, or threatened.

I casually mentioned to son #2—“By the way my closet door is having a mid-life cri—” and he trotted into the room, turned a screwdriver, hammered something-or-another, and suddenly, the door was back on its best behavior.

I considered opening cases for canonization but then remembered that a person probably ought to be dead before we start that process. Besides, these weren’t exactly miracles. Just good deeds that, for some reason, I couldn’t accomplish even if someone threatened me with thirty years of matching unmatchable socks.

The big mystery here is not that things go wrong. Or that I can’t fix them. Or even that others can do what I can’t. It’s that someone can mosey along and do with relative ease what was clearly impossible five minutes before.

It’s as if certain people—at a particular moment in time—are given the magical key to instant success. To say the right word to a confused kid. To lift a broken heart out of the muck. To patch an ego. To embrace the loneliest spirit in the world. Find the lost item. Or lost soul.

These little happenings happen all the time. At least to me. Maybe that’s because I’m always losing, breaking, or mismatching things. Maybe God pities me and sends whatever salvation He can scratch up from my immediate surroundings.

Or maybe, God likes to remind me that I need other people. That I’m not on this journey alone and that no matter how hopeless I may be at finding coffee lids or hanging wayfaring doors, I might just have the sock somebody else has been looking for.

Novels by A. K. Frailey

Science Fiction

Last of Her Kind  http://amzn.to/2y1HJvg

Newearth: Justine Awakens http://amzn.to/2pq0vWN

Historical Fiction

Melchior—Vengeance Is Mine http://amzn.to/2taeW2r

Historical Fiction & Science Fiction Blend

OldEarth ARAM Encounter https://amzn.to/2KLhlsN

OldEarth Ishtar Encounter https://amzn.to/2OAkDQF

OldEarth Neb Encounter (In production)

OldEarth Georgios Encounter (In production)

Children’s Book

The Adventures of Tally-Ho http://amzn.to/2sLfcI5

Inspirational Non-Fiction

HeartBeats—Spiritual Being, Human Journey  https://amzn.to/2KvF3Ll

The Road Goes Ever On—A Christian Journey Through The Lord of the Rings http://amzn.to/2lWBd0z

Short Stories

It Might Have Been—And Other Short Stories https://amzn.to/2XXdDDz

Life Complications

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So okay, after a series of events where I have to make choices, even though I don’t own a crystal ball, and I was definitely at the end of the line when God was handing out the Prophesy skills, I’ve decided that major life complications must be a sign of His love and awesome trust.

Not being able to solve my own problems…I naturally started thinking about everyone else’s. Good plan, eh?

I awoke thinking about Abraham. You know, the guy who just wanted a son, and God said, “Sure, I’ll take care of it. When you and your wife are so far beyond normal childbearing age that it’ll take a miracle to even conceive, she’ll give birth to a bouncing baby boy. Then, just to clarify my love, I’ll ask you to sacrifice that gift as an offering to me.”

Then a miracle happens—Not only is God’s son is offered in place of the human child, humanity is promised the ultimate gift of sacrificial love.

Next, my mind roamed over to Moses…the guy whose bucket list included setting his people free from slavery. Once again, God said, “Sure, I’ll take care of it. Just head on over to Pharaoh’s place and tell him to let loose nearly his entire workforce, and when he gets petulant about the situation, I’ll deal with him one catastrophe at a time. After he finally gives in and starts to chase you across the desert, you’ll run into a blockade of water, but don’t fret, you’ll walk across on dry land. And when your people start to act like whiny kids, I’ll just let them wander out their woes for forty years, till they’re really ready for home.”

More miracles—A new home, a new life, and a new identity as a free people of God.

On down the line to Mary, the model of human perfection. She just wants to do God’s will. God accepts her offer. “You, a single Jewish girl, will get pregnant by the Holy Spirit and carry my Son. But don’t worry, I’ll tell your husband, Joseph, all about it in a dream. Shepherds and Kings will kneel before the child, but all too soon you’ll have to hike over the desert into exile and return a few years later to live in obscurity with the Second Person of God who can turn water into wine and raise the dead. I’ll let Him tell you the bad news…and then the good news…”

And the greatest miracle—God unites Himself with humanity, and Communion becomes true. Humanity is offered, redeemed, given a new home, a new life, and a new identity.

So now when I face my own life complications, I’ve decided not to shake my fist at God and wonder why He has it in for me. Life complications and missions-impossible are His way of showing me His love and His trust.

My offering of love and trust is all I need to make things work. Now that is a miracle indeed.

Novels by A. K. Frailey

Science Fiction

Last of Her Kind  http://amzn.to/2y1HJvg

Newearth: Justine Awakens http://amzn.to/2pq0vWN

Historical Fiction

Melchior—Vengeance Is Mine http://amzn.to/2taeW2r

Historical Fiction & Science Fiction Blend

OldEarth ARAM Encounter https://amzn.to/2KLhlsN

OldEarth Ishtar Encounter https://amzn.to/2OAkDQF

OldEarth Neb Encounter (In production)

OldEarth Georgios Encounter (In production)

Children’s Book

The Adventures of Tally-Ho http://amzn.to/2sLfcI5

Inspirational Non-Fiction

The Road Goes Ever On—A Christian Journey Through The Lord of the Rings http://amzn.to/2lWBd00

Picture link: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/right-direction-next-road-sign-238369/