Little Miracles

It was a week of little miracles, if there is such a thing as little miracles.

Miracle # One: The Sick Man

For some time, some friends in Europe were asking for prayer for their son-in-law who had an aortic dissection and needed surgery. Living with an aortic dissection is life threatening, but the surgery is life threatening as well. He waited several years and then was scheduled for the surgery. He finally had the surgery and then one thing after another began going wrong. He had over a months’ time seven surgeries. The last I'd heard he had nearly died the night before. The doctors had spent 25 minutes resuscitating him and he was now on a ventilator. The doctors had asked the family to come to the hospital at 11:00 to talk to them. I could only imagine how that conversation would go, having just recently experienced similar conversations with doctors about my beloved Sam.

And yet as I set about making my breakfast in the morning I had a really strong urge to call my friend. The mother-in-law of the sick man. She was quite surprised to hear from me. In fact she said right away, “You never call me,” and I said, “That's true, but I'm calling you today to pray for your son-in-law” (who I will call Steve, not his real name). She was glad to pray with me and she let me know that her husband was sitting nearby. They had just agreed to fast all day for their son-in-law. She asked me, “How should we pray?” and I admitted that I did not know. I said, “Let's pray in tongues.” When I said that I was not sure if my friend prayed in tongues; it just came out of my mouth and so we prayed. Her husband joined us and I stayed on the phone with them as long as I could. I later learned that she and her husband prayed in tongues the entire day.

Their son-in-law had a sudden and remarkable recovery. He came off the ventilator.  In a few short days he was walking, and in a week or so he was home walking around. I believe God heard our prayer and healed Steve.

Miracle # Two: A New Friend

That Saturday I was supposed to fly to Tampa. It's been quite difficult for me to fly alone since I injured my hand in August, but I had done it once before and I was prepared. I was leaving out of the Washington DC airport. I like to get to the airport early and settle down with a good book. I noticed that the gate did not match my destination, but I assumed that there were other flights that would take off before mine. But after a while I questioned one of the airline employees at the gate and she said my flight was not leaving from that gate. She looked it up and it was just a few gates away, so I gathered up my belongings and went to the right gate. It was so crowded, but as I approached the gate, wondering where should I sit, a woman in a hajib made eye contact with me and I was drawn directly to her. There was one seat on her right, so I sat down and introduced myself. She lives in Tampa but she is from Syria.

I've never been to Syria but I've written a book about a man who was an evangelist in the Middle East and he had spent considerable time in Syria. I also have a friend who works for religious freedom in Syria and at one point he had given me a small booklet, maybe 60 pages, about praying for Syria. Each page had a different situation or people group. I had used that booklet to pray for Syria for many years. I knew a little bit about their history. And all the different people groups who live in Syria.

Our flight was delayed. First for an hour, then an hour more. I finally went up and asked the airline employees what the holdup was and they told me that the plane had not been able to leave La Guardia because of weather. That a plane had boarded and those poor people were on the flight that did not leave for another five hours. 

During those five hours me and my new friend talked. She told me that Syrians would never cohabit, and I showed her that I had written an article online entitled, Seven Reasons Not to Move in with Your Boyfriend. Because of my injured hand I had to ask Starbucks for a cup of ice every hour or so. She would watch my belongings, which made everything easier, and I watched hers when she wanted to get something to eat. 

I don't know if I will ever see her again but I sense that God was in our meeting, and that it was yet another miracle.

Miracle # Three: The Zoo

I woke up the morning after I arrived in Tampa to the happy smiles and hugs from my granddaughters! They had arrived with my daughter Sarah and son-in-law Ben after I had gone to bed. Our plan for the day was to go to the Tampa zoo with my dear friend Sarah. Yes, two beloved Sarahs. My granddaughters were ecstatic because they knew that the Tampa zoo had koalas, one of only two zoos in the nation. As we entered the zoo I prayed out loud asking the Lord give us favor with the animals. It took us a little while to find the koalas but there they were, adorably perched on slander tree trunks eating eucalyptus leaves. With a glass front, one for each enclosure, we felt we were right there with them. There was also a little pie chart that showed how inactive these creatures are. If I’m remembering right they were only active for about five minutes ours a day. The rest of the time was spent eating or sleeping. Apparently their chosen diet is difficult to digest and they need a lot of time sleeping to let their digestive system do its to work.

But then unexpectedly one of the little guys began to climb down the small tree trunk where he was perched. He then walked across the floor of the enclosure and climbed up another small tree trunk one that was only two feet from where we were standing. We looked at each other in amazement. They aren't often active and here this one was climbing up a new tree in front of us. Then proceeded to eat.

We looked at each other and one of us said, “I think we just saw their five minutes of activity for today! Then we all laughed. We felt it was the favor of God!

But it did not end there. My son-in-law Ben loves wolves and when they got to the wolf enclosure one of the wolves jumped off of his house and trotted over to Ben. He made face-to-face eye contact with Ben as if to say I know you!

Miracle # Four: The Alligator

After the zoo we drove to Fort Meyers where we would be staying for the next 10 days. Our first morning we got up early and went to Six Mile Slough. It's a tropical park where water drains from a vast area and then slowly seeps along the slough until it reaches the ocean. We arrived and paid for parking and headed for one of the trails. There was a man standing there, a tour guide, the last tour guide of the day. We had gotten there just in time to get the last tour guide. He was a volunteer and full of all kinds of interesting knowledge. Pema, my youngest granddaughter, dearly wanted to see an actual alligator. We had forbidden the girls to go out the back door of our ground-floor condo, because there was a large pond and in previous trips I had seen an alligator sunning itself by the side of the pond. There is a saying in Florida that if there is a body of water more than two inches deep there is an alligator in it. Gulp!

As we walked along the boardwalk through the perk we met people coming back saying that they had seen an alligator in one of the ponds. So we headed that way, but the alligator was barely visible, just sort of some eyes and bumpy looking skin sticking barely out of the water.

It was plenty exciting for out-of-towners like us who don't see alligators on a regular basis. But then as we headed back to the car there was one more big pond we passed.  Then Sarah cried out, “What’s that?” There was something large swimming in the water. It swam out to a wooden dock in the middle of the pond and then climbed a ramp submerged in the water and plopped himself down happily on the dock. It was a huge alligator on his happy place sunning himself. Some clever person had realized that they should build a dock for the big fellow so he would not be tempted to sunbathe on the banks of the pond where there were spectators (or from his point-of-view, prey!)

My granddaughters informed me this was miracle # four.

Miracle # Five: The Missing Gift

My son Sammy popped the question on December 6th, 2024, so now I had a new daughter-in-law to be. I wanted to buy her a Christmas present and found a sweater online in her favorite color. I thought I was so clever when I had it shipped to the address of the condo where we were staying. My phone told me that it arrived on December 23rd. There was only one problem, it was not on the front porch. A close look at the tracking revealed that the last leg of the journey had been provided by the US Postal Service. My daughter Sarah thought we should visit the post office, so Sarah, me, and the granddaughters carefully followed the directions to the post office—alas the wrong one. At the second post office they looked at my tracking information and informed me that the sweater would not be there anymore because it had come in on the 21st and it was now the 24th.

I prayed silently. I saw the postal clerk hesitate as if an idea had come into her mind, then she said, “Wait one moment,” she shut down her station and quickly moved to the opposite wall and into a door. Eventually she returned and told us go down to a door and wait. She didn't say if they'd found the package but we obediently did as she instructed and waited outside a split door on the customer side of the lobby. Eventually a woman appeared. She informed us that the condo where we were staying did not have an active post office box and from the point of view of the US Postal Service it was an unoccupied unit. She said that the package would be returned to the forwarding address.

“Canada?” we asked. “Would you really send it to Canada?” While we waited we had called the owner of the condo and learned that yes indeed they had never activated the postal address. The woman told us she was sorry that there was nothing she could do.

But then again her face looked as if she got a sudden idea. Do you have the same last name as the person who owns the condo?” she asked.

“No,” I replied. “He's my brother-in-law.”

“Whose name is on the package?”

“My name.”

She excused herself and was gone for about five minutes. When she came back she was holding a package—the package! She explained that packages only get forwarded if the name on the package matches the name on file. She had decided to go look on the desk of the person who dealt with problem packages. And guess what package was on the top of the pile? My package. The supervisor seemed quite gleeful that it had all come together so well. She got someone to scan the package and handed it to us.

“That,” said my granddaughters, “was miracle number five.”

I hope that these simple stories that happened during seven days last month will help you recognize when God is showing you favor by granting you little miracles in your everyday life.

Love,

Betsy