Family Weekly j
April 2, 1961
You Should
On Easter, we celebrate the
By WILL OURSLER
Author of "The Healing Power of Faith"
She was A woman of middle age, suddenly
swamped with fears. Fear of rejection, of
growing old, of no longer being loved or needed.
Fear of losing two shining emblems of security
her husband and her home., '
Senseless jealous rages developed out of this
emotional turmoil. She knew her husband had al
ways been faithful, yet now she began' to accuse
' him every time he came in late.
The husband and two : grown-up children
watched this situation worsen until finally after
an all-night quarrel over a baseless suspicion
the husband said that both he and the children
felt that she needed psychiatric treatment.
Their fears only increased her own. If she were ,
mentally ill, she might spend the rest of her life
in an institution. She knew her tirades and suspi
cions were without foundation, yet still the words
poured out of her. .
Terrified at the thought of clinical treatment,
. 'longing for help and afraid to seek it, without faith ,
or perspective to guide her, she packed a bag,
slipped out of the house unnoticed, and took' a
cab to the airport.
As the taxi drove up the airport ramp, she was
aware of her own helplessness. She did not even
know where she was going. She was whipped,
beaten. Only God can help me, she thought, And
I don't go to church or even know how to pray,
On the transcontinental plane she boarded, her
only idea was to sit by the window, close to the
night and the stars, where she could think things'
out for herself.
i But there were only aisle seats left, the steward
ess explained. Frustrated, huddled in the aisle
seat, she cried quietly to herself, wallowing in self
' pity and daubing her eyes with a crumpled little
handkerchief.
Then she saw that the elderly man beside her
was holding out a large white handkerchief. "You
might as well use this," he was saying. "Gives you
more crying room.", (il
Gratefully, she took the handkerchief. In a little
while, almost without her realizing it, they were
talking. Suddenly, she was telling him about her
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Family Weekly, April 2. 1961
Miracle of Miracles, but often we
self, pouring out her story to this graying man
at her side. . . .
He listened attentively, making only occasional ;
mild interjections that seemed to encourage her '
to go on.
The more she talked, the more answers seemed
to come to her, almost out of her own words. There
was no difficult, complex problem. It was only her-
self, only her fears. If she got rid of fear, the sense
less rages and suspicion would go. A whole new
; understanding engulfed her.
All she wanted to do was to get to a telephone
to let them know "she was all right and that she ...
was going to come home. . ; ,
After the plane landed, she paused long enough
to thank this stranger for just listening. "Well,"
he said, "that's part of my job. I'm a religious psy
chologist. I work in what we call nondirective
counseling. You know, if you just help people talk
things out with themselves, the whole problem
sometimes disappears.' I was justjiaving a bus
man's holiday." .
All the way to the phone, the words were turn
ing over in her mind: thank God thank God!
Was it a miracle that she happened to sit in the
aisle seat by this man of all others? Was it a di
rect intervening of God in her life?
" Does Qod Intervene for All?
Most of us know of instances that seem almost, ,
if not actually, "miraculous." We know of healings,
of sudden successes where "hone seemed risible
or attainable; we " know of averted disasters in
homes and businesses.
The issue comes then: is it miraculous in the
basic, dictionary sense "an event in the physical ,
world, wrought by superhuman agency"? Or is it
merely an accident, a coincidence?
For if miracles do happen, many ask, why don't
they happen to all of us?
The answer is they do.
There are times when we cast our bread upon
the waters, and don't realize until years later that
it has come back to us long since. There are times
when miracles happen to us that only we can know
and we may fail to recognize them.
For instance, a big, gawky kid out of a slum area
wanted to be a newspaperman. He had no educa
tion, no training. He made it as far as copy boy
fail to recognize an everyday
oh a daily in an Eastern city. Because of his readi
ness to pitch in and. help anybody who needed
help, even when he' knew nothing about the prob
lem involved, everyone" in the city room kidded
him mercilessly. ' .
'All he prayed for was a break a chance to be
part of a big story. This is the dream and prayer
of every copy boy. But for this youth the break
came quite literally when a line snapped in an
elevator, and he found himself trapped in the car,
along with one of the most famous newspaper re
porters in America.
A Career Is Launched
To his amazement, the copy boy discovered that
the world-renowned reporter was scared. It was
the youth who calmed the man down as they sat
waiting in that car for several hours to be rescued.
The idle chatter of that copy boy aimed at easing
tensions marked the start of a friendship that not
only lasted many years but actually launched the
youth on an upward road to success in journalism.
Years later, in a speech, he told of this incident
and its importance. "It was like a miracle," he told
his listeners, "that the cable had to break at just
the instant when he and I were in the car."
"Like" a miracle? Only in those later, grown
up days did this one-time copy boy realize that it
was more than "like" it was, in essence, the an
swer to all his prayers.
We cannot expect miracles to come stamped and
labeled. Extraordinary miracles are recorded at
some of the world's great religious shrines, but
there is another kind of everyday "miracle" that
docs not seem extraordinary unless you know all
the facts. It is a smooth working out of God's law
in our lives, as we allow that law to work by per
mitting the Holy Spirit to flow through us. When
we are one with this Spirit, we experience the
miraculous not when we strain, not when we
plead for special favors, but only when we relax,
when we allow the Lord to work through us.
The evidence also indicates that we can block the
channels by hate, resentments, fears, grudges all
the negative factors. Miracles do not take root in
such uncompromising soil.
. The answer comes when we know it can come,
when we know that God in His love wanted only
the best for each of His children and when we do
kind of miracle -one that happens to all of us, if we let it
not block His infinite love with our petty hate.
Those who are not used to miraculous experi
ences think of them as coincidences. Those who
know about them through many personal ex
periences accept them as a part of the miraculous
character of God's universe. -
What kind of miracles happen? The answer is:
many kinds big and small, obscure and world
proclaimed, of minor or tremendous importance
in our lives. All can be the miraculous working
out of the Divine order. - t
Some time ago, while preparing a series of
articles on religious healing, I included the story
of a little girl who had been deaf and dumb from
birth but had recovered her speech and hearing
at a shrine in Canada. Shortly before the story
was to appear, I was informed that the story was
in error;' little Mary Alicia James had not been
healed and still could not speak. -
My information had been that the healing had
happened 10 years before, when Mary Alicia was
only four years old. Alarmed, I put in a person-to-person
call to either of the parents. Over the long- '
distance phone, I heard a voice state that the
parents were not in and that they were not ex
pected for some hours. - -
A possibility suddenly crossed my thoughts. I
asked the operator to inquire if anyone else were
there. I could hear the answer, "There's only me."
"Ask her," I said, "who 'me' is."
Then I heard the voice of this once-speechless
child. "I'm Mary Alicia," she said.
The operator wanted to know if she should try
to reach the parents later.
There was no need.
The -Stuff of Miracles Is Around Us
When we open our eyes and minds to the mean
ing in what we see, hear, and experience, we may
discover new dimension in the "casual and coin
cidental" like the check that arrives in the nick
of time, the chance meeting that gives us the in
formation needed for an important project, or the
strong hunch that guides us to a right decision,
"I find the most remarkable coincidences happen
to me," one lady put it, "as long as I keep praying.'
When I stop they stop."
- We live our daily lives in the climate of miracles
in the trust of a child, the tenderness of a loving
wife or husband, and in all the countless other
human relationships that often are miracles in
themselves. In all these things, the stuff of miracles
is all around us, and we need only to become aware
of its presence to experience the good that is God
in our lives. ,
Two sisters born in Europe were separated dur
ing World War II. For 20 years each thought the
other dead, yet each prayed that she would learn
the story of what happened to the other.
The Improbable Happens
One day, registering at a hotel in an American
city, the older sister was startled when the desk
clerk told her, "But you don't have to register
again, Madam. You registered an hour ago."
The woman explained that this was not the case;
she had just arrived from the railroad station. The
desk clerk called in the bellhop, who agreed that
he had taken this lady and her luggage to a room
on the second floor.
' A suspicion came to the woman. She was only
a year older than her sister they now were both
in their late 30s and could certainly look alike.
She asked to see the name she supposedly had
signed, but did not recognize it at all. Then she
noticed the "Mrs." on the register.
She raced up the stairs and knocked on the door.
It seemed hours before someone answered. There
before her she saw a woman of almost the same age
and features as herself.
Neither spoke, yet in that instant both knew.
The sisters were in each other's arms, laughing,
crying, trying to talk.
It was only later that they realized that they
were wearing similar outfits brown tweed suits,
each with a bright yellow scarf.
Why did it happen just this way?
The sisters knew only that love and faith which
had never wavered had brought them together
again at last. '
The miracle awaits us, awaits our awareness.
We seek, and the answer comes. Today tomorrow
or a year from now. But it will come only as our
understanding and our gratitude deepen,
The answer is warm and overwhelming. The
outside world may call it coincidence, but it docs
not matter what the world may say.
In our hearts, we know.
Family Weekly, April 2, 1861
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