Pondering my little miracle yesterday, I realize I have been the recipient of many miracles in my life. More than I can remember, for sure. These aren’t miraculous restorations of missing limbs or anything, but more like things you could miss if you weren’t actually paying attention.

It’s been said in quantum physics (I haven’t greatly studied this topic so forgive any errors of interpretation) that what you look at/focus on actually becomes. If you aren’t watching a particle, it stops moving, but when you watch a particle, it becomes and remains active.

Could the same be said for small miracles? And even more, could those small miracles evolve into great big ones? I mean, if that’s what we’re looking for, aren’t we more likely to find them?

When I think of miracles, the ones that come to mind most often are traffic miracles. The traffic in our area has become a lot more hazardous over the last few years, and it seems in the last few weeks I’ve had my share of people sort of veering over into my lane. I went to pick up one of the kiddos from work and was at a traffic light looking at my phone while the light was red, and was startled by the sound of impact. I looked up, and just feet away from me, a car had been rear-ended while turning right in front of me. One of the passengers stumbled out along with a half gallon of milk and a second, smaller passenger right after him. I missed the actual impact because I wasn’t looking. But in truth, did the impact actually miss me?

A few weeks later, I was driving and thinking about teaching the kids to drive and how to actually think while driving and the thought entered my mind to remember to drive defensively- always prepared for others to make errors in judgement, mistakes, or to simply not give a rip about what they are doing on the road. So in that moment, I put on that mindset and in the next moment, the car in the right lane (a car that had already taken quite a beating) veered over into my lane to the point where I nearly had to stop the car to avoid getting squashed. If I had stayed my course or not been paying extra attention, who knows what would have happened.

And then there’s the time on the highway where I was headed full speed towards traffic that had suddenly stopped and quick as a whistle, did a miraculous lane change in which I didn’t even have time to check for cars in the lane beside me. It was a miracle that there was no one there. It was as if my car had been picked up and set in the lane next to me (even though there was a pretty powerful lurch with that swerve). It doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as it was in real life. My passengers (daughters) thought my driving was bad, when in reality- it was quite good. Miraculous, even! But rather than it being my stellar driving I believe it was the Hand of the Divine.

I suppose my point is: miracles abound when you are looking for them. Or when you see them in retrospect. And frankly, I rely on them. Because my ability to be perfectly ordered as a human being is sparse. And I think that when we give credit to the Miracle Maker, maybe we are privy to even more miracles. When He shows us we are seen with those small miracles, it’s only fair to show that He is seen as well.