Chance or Miracle

On Christmas Eve Day, reflecting on the miracle of Christmas magic all around us seems quite fitting. Are you cognizant of God’s handy work in your life or just moving around in automatic pilot as if things happen by your design, poor luck with no rhyme or reason and no divine intervention?  If that were the case, what would be the point in having faith, praying or celebrating the birth of a newborn King every year?

As I reflect on several ‘chance’ meetings I can see a plan unfold in my life that has led to tremendous growth and blessings in my own life. Through my own sufferings I have grown and developed into who I am today.  Just to share a few…

Years ago, on a trip home from New York, we were on the expressway and the traffic was barely moving. We were in Cleveland and stopped at a rest area to take a break. We had replayed CD music over and over and even that was getting old. As we walked up the walkway a huge crowd was gathered outside.  It was September 11, 2011 and we were told what was going on. 

As the crowd grew larger, we all bonded there, from all walks of live over an American tragedy that we all knew, forever would change our lives, our country.  Fellow Americans had died while we had sat in our cars bitching about backed up traffic. We had all noticed no airplanes flying overhead and thought it odd.  Never had we dreamed what had taken place.  Never again would any of us be so foolish as to think stopped traffic was the end of the world. Keep your perspective on the road and in life. Patience truly is a virtue.  Living is what matters. You are given the blessing of life while others time has run out.

Driving home from celebrating Christmas with family, we stopped for gas one year.  In the restroom, I heard a young girl sobbing in the stall. With urging, I got her to come out.  She was afraid her mother’s boyfriend would hear her crying she told me.  We whispered so I could calm her down and find out what was going on as something told me this young girl needed me. She told me she was 10 years old. Red-eyed with pony tails I told her to ease her fear we would blast the water in the sink to cover our voices.  She was to tell him we did not talk and I only helped her clean up the sink and try to shut it off. 

Her story was that he had pushed her out of the moving car on his way to get gas while driving fast. Leaving her roadside, bruised and scrapped and cut up, he only came back a little later to pick her up. She was living in fear because he was very mean to her and hurt her.  I gave her advice on how to try to live with him and reiterated she must speak up to her teacher, doctor and anyone else she knew and thought to be a safe person about what was going on. If her mother wasn’t keeping her safe she needed to find someone who was.

At this point, a man began screaming at the door, yelling what apparently was her name. I yelled back, roughly as if I too was a foul mouthed woman telling him the sink was messed up and I was helping her clean it up. I whispered to her to not let a word on and just hang in there, pray to God and He will listen and tell a safe person as soon as she gets a chance, kissed and hugged her. I told her one day you will be safe like I got there!  She smiled and walked out. And I prayed, I prayed hard and I cried. And I thanked God for letting me have the chance to be a light of hope.  We all need to be the person that tells children that are hurting that the future can and will be brighter. And also, if their parents are hurting them, tell someone who cares and will do something about it. Be a child’s mouthpiece, God puts you there for a reason.

The first time I attended a camp for cancer survivors, I felt out of place. I wasn’t sure I would connect with any of the ladies there. The second morning I was there, I stepped in the restroom to take a shower and saw a woman at the sink. As she turned around, I saw this strange aura around her, like a golden light. She says she got a strange feeling about me. As we talked, we felt as if we had known each other for years. We quickly became soul mates.

Since that time, one of my dearest friends has seen me through a many tragedies and triumphs and I have been with her either in presence or spirit through hers. It can be in the strangest places that God brings into your life the greatest of his healers and allows you to be the great healer for others and soul mate for another. Do not walk into rooms with your eyes shut to strangers.

As I swam my laps in the pool, my foot came in contact with a person. I lifted my head and saw a stranger! Apologizing I found out it was a new person to our community I had just kicked hard in the abdomen of all places!  Feeling horrified, she laughed saying ouch as it had to hurt. The second time I met this nice lady was I had to interview her for the community newsletter I write for as she was a new resident.  Luckily she declined to comment on the “kick” in the article! LOL! 

Since that time, she and I have developed a very special friendship that continues to grow. I have friends in the community but prefer keeping intimate friendships more too very few. And yet, with this woman it is as if that kick worked backwards and was a kick to me. It is as if God kicked me and told me this woman is something extra special. I am not sure, if that hadn’t happened I would have reached out, conversed and spent the extra time getting to know her on the surface we have nothing in common and yet, in getting to know her, she is beautiful inside and out. She is truly enriching my life as our friendship grows.  I find myself almost grateful I kicked her and now thinking God had something to do with it because I truly do sometimes get too caught up in my own world. Be open and don’t get so comfortable that you are afraid to let others in. God may be putting them there for a reason.

On Jesus’s birth, many were in denial that a King could be born in a mere stable. They did not see 

this as a miracle. Do miracles really happen every day and do we recognize them? Can it be God’s plan that people really get bonded over 9/11 at a rest stop?  Can an abused girl crying for help receive

God’s answer through a stranger on Christmas day? We all need friends that are like soulmates. Is a miracle God giving you one that just relates to you one very level? And lastly but as importantly, is part of God’s master plan of Christmas like magic bringing new people into our life that we know are part of our future ?  I say yes, miracles happen daily and show the magic of Christmas should be celebrated and recognized and shared. I think that the blues post-Christmas should be offset by the realization that the magic of God’s power extends 365 days of the year and only begins with the birth of Christ and doesn’t end there. And with that, Merry Christmas to all! 

Transpose Me God

Today at church our priest asked a question. "What are the moments in our lives that

transpose us?"  What events occur that make us change significantly in ways we can never return back to who we were before?  Are they happy or sad events or both?

Reflecting on this, initially no one reacted.  He had to pump ideas into the congregation"s head. "Surely someone has had a child."  That got the wheels turning and the ideas flowing, shouts began one after another.

When something happens in our life very good, it is easy, initially, to assume it had something to do with us. However, upon reflection, we must recognize it is by divine grace of God we are given blessings, much as we are given life. Many babies are never born, dying in the womb not seeing the light of day. You being here is a miracle.  Thus that is transposing to all those that know you and whose lives you touch. Are you making the most of those experiences, impacting others lives in a positive way, lifting people up so as to help them achieve their greatness?

We are also transposed when we commit to relationships, such as marriage and deep abiding friendships.  Honoring relationships is keeping them sacred, prime importance in your life above all else. Do you protect other’s love, trying to minimize pain or do you take it for granted? We are to cherish each other's love and feelings as if they were our own.  We should be a shoulder to cry on for each other and be there in times of sorrow and need, in good times and in bad. Can we not celebrate and cheer each other on as we are all children of God? In doing so, our lives and others should and would forever be changed.

We are also transposed, as Father pointed out, very much by sad events, such as the death of a child. It truly tests  our faith. Hearing the word cancer, said in relation to us, or any life limiting disease transposes us as we now face our own mortality firsthand. We must face the inevitable and deal with it in a real way. With this realization comes the process of acceptance of  God as our savior if we are to have peace and serenity approaching death. Understanding that the path of Jesus's resurrection leads to life will help not only us but the loved ones we leave behind.

Being shut out of loved ones lives is the reality of many Christians, such as in divorce or families falling apart. It is never easy to let go of ones you love but sometimes the signs are there that you are no longer wanted.  Fighting it will not change the outcome.  Transposition is not always something we want to embrace but with God's help, we can successfully. 

As Christians we do not create our own life’s plans, we walk in God’s divine plan and make the best choices we can with our daily steps. Accept defeat with grace and those that persecute you, let them be. You must be right with God in the end, that is what matters most. The Lord is with you always, keep an open heart to those that love you unconditionally.  

As our Priest said today, only with transposing oneself can a Christian truly grow. We need moments that stop us in our tracks, both good and bad episodes, that affect us in a way we will never be the same. That is called living a rich full life.  The price of this is that you will have times that will shake you to the core and bring you to your knees in sorrow.

Anything less than this, though, is half living. And wishing it weren't is taking the miracle of life for granted. So don’t be frightened when you find yourself looking in the mirror and seeing yourself change. That simply means you have lived, you have embraced and you have allowed God to work through you!  Amen. 

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After communion, I looked around and bent my head down, reflecting on how blessed I am to be at such a beautiful loving church. Inspite of all that I miss in my life, I can feel, every single time I attend Mass every week here my Grandmother in heaven watching me. She was a devout Catholic, who I use to watch pray the rosary and talk to me about her faith. I know she is proud of me for converting to Catholism and practicing the faith that was so much a part of who she was. 

And yes, Grandma, my faith, your beautiful Catholic Church has transposed me too!