A Walking Miracle
When I was a sophomore in college, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy. It was an amazing semester of adventure. We visited new cities and countries, tried new foods, experienced new cultures and made new friends. I also remember going into SO many churches and holy sites. They seemed to be at every turn; majestic buildings with beautiful paintings and usually a story connecting the place to an amazing saint or miracle that happened there years ago. It was incredible.
Then, I came home to my normal routine and found myself yearning for the extraordinary; for adventure and beauty. I was excited to be home, but I also felt the ache for something more.
Have you ever found yourself wondering, where are those miracles that were talked about so much in Scripture or in the early church? Why don’t we see these things anymore? I know I have.
We live in a world where it is easy to get lost in the motions. Everything is constantly moving, we are constantly stimulated, we move from one trend to the next and the cycle continues over and over again. Where’s the extraordinary? Where’s the miraculous?
Unfortunately we have become blind, almost numb to the little miracles that surround us everyday. In fact, each of us are literally walking miracles. Did you know the odds of you existing is about 1 in 400 trillion. Take a second to think about it, everyone in your family tree before you had to meet for you to exist. Even more, only one sperm from your father and one egg from your mother could have come together to create you. If your parents had conceived at any other time than the moment of your conception, you wouldn’t be here. That’s insane!
And yet, you are here. You are living and breathing everyday, and you are constantly surrounded by other walking miracles. So why is it so hard for us to recognize this truth?
Because we don’t believe it.
How could I be a walking miracle? I struggle, I have hard days, I mess up, I go to school, go to practice, come home and repeat. Where’s the extraordinary in this?
The fact of the matter is, we have been trained to separate miracles, the extraordinary, God in general, from all other aspects of our lives. We too often think of prayer as something that happens only on Sundays, or when we think of it, not something that constantly fuels us
When I came back from Italy, I started to study Saint John Paul II’s 1993 visit to my hometown Denver, Colorado for World Youth Day, a gathering of Catholic young people from around the world that the Vatican organizes every few years. In my research, I found that John Paul II purposely chose the city of Denver because he knew that many people did not consider it to be a holy place. It was just a modern city, filled with people seeking the things of the world. Why would anyone go to a modern city to find God?
But that was the beauty of John Paul II’s choice. He wanted the young people of the world to know that God is in every space — whether it’s a holy site in Europe, a skyscraper in Denver, in the heart of a saint, or even in the heart of the greatest of sinners. God is everywhere, even if it’s hard to see Him.
The reality of Him in you can be seen in the truth that your life is a miracle. The fact that you struggle, have hard days, experience the same routine of life every day is miraculous because it’s happening. It’s happening even though it could have very easily never turned out this way.
You don’t have to go to Europe to experience the extraordinary.
Just look at yourself in the mirror tonight.
Really look at yourself and realize the miracle you are.
