Welcoming Miracles

Over the past decade, I've been something of a wanderer. I was, for a while, estranged from my family. I left my longtime church and went through a long search for another one. Several close friends moved out of state. Then my longtime therapist (also a good friend) passed away -- shortly before first my father and then my mother also died.

I have tried to face too much alone. Now that I have -- at last -- found the church I've been searching for all these years, I'm finding it easy to make friends. I've begun reaching out and finding support -- building community -- and as I get more involved in church, politics and life, I'm feelin' the love again.

Now that, once again, something I greatly feared turned out to be groundless, I can admit this. For a long time, I was afraid that if I reached out for fellowship and support, everyone would yawn, shrug and turn away. What actually did happen is what I should have known would happen. People have been wonderful. A good many of them -- more than I could have hoped for -- have responded with great warmth and generosity of spirit.

People are better than I thought they were. There's much more goodness in them than I realized. I'd gotten pretty jaundiced in my estimation of human nature. We're not devils (at least, most of us aren't). And we do have better angels in our nature.

I've also been worried about how we, as a nation, would respond to the economic crisis we're all living through. Would we be at each other's throats, tearing our fellow human beings to shreds? Would we still be capable of pulling together and treating each other with compassion?

It's too early to know for sure, but I can only base my guess on my own, personal experience of late. In times of need, people will rally. We really WANT to care about others. Indeed, it seems to be a big part of who God made us to be.

And God is the key here. As I began actually reaching out for help and personal support, I made my need for this part of my daily prayer-life. As I poured out my need to God in prayer, I truly believe that "He" heard me.

Boy, did "He" ever! I asked, and I have received. Knocked, and the door was opened. Blessing has been poured out in abundance. My cup truly runneth over.

God has answered my prayers before, of course. It's happened so often that if I had any sense, I would no longer be surprised. Because God knows exactly what I need, "He" seems to prompt me, in fact, to know what I should pray for -- and to have the guts to go ahead and ask.

Everything good comes from God -- both inside of us and from without. That's true for us as individuals, and it's true for us collectively, as well.

I've been praying for us to come together now as a nation -- and as a world. I believe God put it into my heart, as "He" has into the hearts of so many others, to ask for this. Just as God has given us the will to pray for this -- so right, and so very, very crucial to us all -- God will certainly answer these fervent prayers of ours. The miracle is coming. Let's be sure we're ready to welcome it with arms wide open.