While writing my blog, I was presented with the question of miracles in a Friday Feast, and I wrote about how my brother almost wasn’t (you can read the tale here and here). That is an excellent story left me wondering whether the warning came from someone who was more than what he appeared. But that story is not my story, at least not directly.
Without really focusing on it other incidences came to mind. Now mind you, these are not the biblical sized miracles like turning water into wine, being knocked off a horse by God, or such. Nor are they the everyday miracles like life itself. In some ways they seem to me to be the guardian angel working overtime type of miracles, and I have three that I came to mind over the past several days.
The first happened on my birthday. I think it was my 16th, only two years after my brother from the other story was born. Now, at the time my folks had run into a bit of a rough patch financially, and we had moved to a house that did not quite fit their dreams. But it was a good home in a solid working class neighborhood. Now, for most of my life my Mom had been a full-time mom, but because my dad had been injured, she spent a few years working for the local school district.
For a boy of 16, no mom or dad around meant a little bit of freedom. I must admit that I was not exactly the wildest kid, but I was not as good as I could have been either. I remember wishing I could drive (I didn’t drive until 17), but was going to make the most of the warm day. I grabbed my bike and was going for a ride down the street.
At the time we lived in a flag lot where a big property was subdivided into three smaller properties with a long driveway. We lived in the middle house. And the driveway was just long enough to get going a good speed - not super fast, but fast enough. Now there were bushes and cars along the driveway, so I could not see whether any cars were coming. Being 16, I was not really paying attention.
Thankfully, my guardian angel was paying attention. A car hit my bike, ripped the front wheel right off and sent it flying at a good 200 feet. I fell to the ground, and a pebble scratched the heal of my hand, and that was the extent of my injuries. A car going about 35 mph missed hitting me directly by the tiniest fraction of a second.
I am not sure that others would think that a miracle, but I do. I thank God I am alive, and for an excellent guardian angel.
