MODERN MIRACLES

TODAY: Share this poem provided by Fordham University professor Dr. Dennis Shields. It was written by a young child suffering from cancer: "Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask, ‘How are you?’ Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? You better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last."

A few months ago, we took our son Peter for his first visit to New York City. As we stood outside Pennsylvania Station in a long pre-Christmas taxicab line, a CNN camera crew came up and asked us whether we believed in miracles. We chose not to answer for television, but the question stayed with me for the next few weeks.

I have always shied away from the discussion of modern miracles. As a lifelong Methodist, I have been wary of miracle stories because too often the proclaimed miracles seem to ignore logical explanations of the event based on modern scientific methods. Somehow, what happened in the Bible was acceptably miraculous because it was in the ancient world and in a foreign culture.

But my doubt about the existence of modern miracles was swept away early last year. In March, I was in a five-car accident on the Beltway that could have killed me. A car lost control on the icy road, and within seconds, it was sliding in front of me upside down. As I Tboned the other car and heard the horrible sound of metal striking metal, I thought that either I was about to meet my Maker or that I would wake up in the emergency room in horrible pain. Neither happened. Instead, while my pickup truck was destroyed, I walked away from that accident with only a minor bruise on my right knee. God had spared my life.

Ever since then I have asked myself why was I spared? God clearly wanted me to remain on this earth a while longer, but what special work does he have for me? He obviously wants Ursula and me to do the best job possible of raising our son and to practice our Christian faith. But is there something else? So far, I have no profound answers to this question, but I plan to keep listening for God’s special message for me.

What I do know is that I am profoundly grateful for the miracle of life on this planet -- for the ability to love and to be loved, to share in and enjoy the wonders of God’s creation. Jesus is quoted in the Gospel of John as saying that whoever believes in him shall have everlasting life. My brush with death convinced me that I do believe in everlasting life in Jesus Christ and that when our days on earth are over, there is another life beyond. This is the ultimate message and miracle of Eastertide.

— Dennis Wilder

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist