The Anatomy Of A Miracle

I recall the experiences as a child of being completely enthralled by the accounts of these mysterious things called miracles, as they were reported in the series of writings commonly referred to as The Bible. I heard of seas parting on command, walking staffs being turned into serpents, single clouds becoming torrential downpours, virginal births under guiding stars, water being turned into endless gallons of wine: the tales of God-ordained transcendent acts kept my imagination whirling as I listened with rapture to my charismatic and compelling minister. Though it was never promised or even suggested in my church of origin, I made the association early on that if the folks of long ago could perform such sacred acts of faith, then there was no apparent reason that I couldn’t channel this Divine energy as well. I might not have labeled it as such at that point in my life. I did feel, however, that faith was faith, and there was no reason why a couple thousand years should minimize the power of God.
I started small. I began with report cards and Christmas gifts. Allowance raises, and vacation dreams. I must admit my success ratio wasn’t ominous, but it didn’t dampen my determination. I prayed and prayed, with the perceived fervor of a Moses, Elijah, or of Jesus. I should point out here that I was not an easily deterred child. I filed whatever seemed to be missed attempts as simply being out of synch with the will of God. I tried hard not to be too discouraged at the “no” answers I was sometimes receiving. And I did have enough successes that my thesis of present day miracles seemed very plausible, at least to my twelve-year-old brain. The time came when the stakes in my miracle making became much higher. Awareness was arising within me of a part of myself that felt inescapable, yet was also out of alignment with what I was taught was acceptable in the sight of the God of my teaching. I was left to pray for the miracle of being relieved of who I was and am in my human expression. I prayed repeatedly at a young age that I wouldn’t be the “abomination” that the scriptures told me I was. This was nothing short of praying to be saved from the hell reserved for people like me. With all the prayer, and all of the subsequent attempts at suppression and denial, the miracle was kept at bay. This was a major set back in my attempt to harness the power of the Divine.
My next major attempt at miracle making came in regards to my father, who was diagnosed at a young age with early on-set Alzheimer’s disease. I prayed that a miracle would save him and all of us from this cruel trick of fate. Prayer after prayer was met with the rapid fading of the father who was becoming once again a child. Perhaps there was an association between these two devastating no’s; perhaps fathers of abominations were not spared the catastrophe of the long goodbye. This particular sea could not be parted, and the cup held a bitter wine indeed. Perhaps, as unfair as it seemed, miracles were only meant for those tribal peoples of long ago. Maybe we in modern times are left to go it alone, at least in terms of this earthly experience. Perhaps, as illogical as it seemed in my heart of possibility, the Biblical God of my upbringing really did begin speaking directly to us in the Genesis account of old, and ceased communicating with us with the missive of Revelation. My days as a miracle worker in training ended abruptly, and they left me with a sad and discouraged heart.
It would be many years until I was led back into the realm of the miraculous, and that road was to be a radically different and easily immanent path. As much as most of the population that is even open to the possibility of miracles today sees them as something that occur in the realm of manifest form, my sense and experience of the miraculous is something that actually happens within me. A miracle is an inner perceptual shift in awareness that creates a new groove in consciousness. This new place in consciousness becomes a lens through which I see differently from an expanded state of Being within. The shift that has occurred in the mind of the conscious observer of reality than has the capability of transforming what it is we are observing. To state it differently, a miracle occurs in the realm of the within, and is sometimes noticed in the world of the without. The point of a miracle is not to change what is seen, but to transform the one who is seeing. To pray for a miracle is to pray to be shown, in our own higher places of consciousness, a new and Truer reality. It is a prayer to be shown the inherent Love available in every fearful perception. It is a call to see with a higher vision, to think with a transcendent wisdom. Miracles take place within the hearts and minds of people who are looking within first for guidance and inspiration. The Divine Force of One is always seeking to be Known in our day-to-day experiences. It must accomplish this through our own availability to see beyond our physical sight, and to know something beyond our limited past. Surrendered prayer is the vehicle of miracles, receptivity the conductor. The less we are attached to a certain outcome in the physical realm, the more the Infinite Intelligence of the Universal One can shine through our openness and into our expanded awareness. With expanding awareness comes emerging possibility, possibilities that we have never seen before, though they have been right before us. Genius flows through openness, not through striving. If we remain open and willing to see the Divine in every person, event, situation, and challenge, the Wisdom of the Ages can infiltrate our limited perceptions, and point the way to things we have never conceived of before. Everything that is needed for a miracle is always available within our own sacred hearts. When we are fixated on a problem to be solved, utilizing past strategies rooted in fear, the miraculous is available yet inaccessible. If we are straining in an effort to make something happen out there in a way and at a time that our minds deem necessary, we are mistaking effect for causation, and therefore not present to the Principles from which miracles are born.
While there are certainly things in my experience today that I would prefer to happen, my prayers for miracles occur in a radically different way for me now then they did when I was a child. In fact, I do not pray for miracles at all. I pray IN the Heart of the Miraculous, and surrender into what I am shown by the Light of my Inner knowing. I am much less prone to believe that I know the specifics of what needs to occur in my life, in what way, and by when. While I appreciate the contrast that brings me the gift of preference, I value the gift of serenity more than the constriction of trying to get my own way. Rather than trying to get things to look a certain way, I pray more into seeing what is in a way that brings forth the perfection of what is emerging in the present moment. I am much less interested in parting seas, and more committed to uniting the dualistic sea of my own consciousness.
Since the days of my childhood, I have received the miracle of knowing that who I am and how I express is in no way an “abomination unto God.” In fact, my transcendence of that limited religious doctrine is now a beacon of Light to those still suppressed by such bigoted notions. While my beloved father died after long not knowing his grieving son, I have been blessed to be a loving, understanding support to countless others who have faced this painful, mysterious spiritual unfoldment. My father lives on and gives through me in a thousand ways, this writing being a perfect and dedicated example. The miracle wasn’t that he didn’t transition this world. The miracle was and is that I could see it in a way that led me to a deeper knowing and a broader vision of that occurrence.
Miracles are ever present within the depths of our awakened hearts. While it is cause for celebration to notice and to appreciate the manifestations of miracles as they appear in the situations and circumstances of this world, today’s miracle workers are those who are devoted to seeing the miraculous in ALL things, by focusing in the Spirit Essence IN which miracles are born. We pray not as much for outer fixes as for inner focus. We live within a Faithfulness that Knows beyond intellectual knowing that The Sacred Birther is everywhere Present, and so omnipotently available. With a serene, surrendered openness, we are poised in the Presence that witnesses the miraculous within us and so all around us. This is the Vision of the awakened mind, the Loving of the opened heart, and the destiny of all beings everywhere. When all fear is transformed to love in our healed and transformed minds, the need for miracles will disappear. That will be the grandest and the last miracle of all, for the realm of the all will have become the experience of the One.