Simple Miracles

There is miracle. It is true. When we hear of miracles, we always associate it with seemingly unimaginable, big extravagant happenings in our lives. If someone gets very ill and suddenly gets healed, it’s miracle. If someone almost died from an accident and fortunately survived, we call it miracle. These are indeed miracles. But aside from those life-changing incidents we rarely encounter, if only we just open all our senses, we could tell that miracles really do exist even in simple ways.

Few weeks ago, I made a decision that made say “I shouldn’t have made that decision.” I have agreed with my younger sister that as soon as she graduates college, she should be the one taking charge of our 4th brother’s finances in college. When I learned that he would be enrolling the following year, I volunteered to take charge of his schooling. My sister still needed time to find a job, before she could financially help our younger brother to college. Soon, I realized that it was too late to take back what I have told them. I realized it was really too expensive, even more expensive than what I thought it was. Aside from the two of them having different boarding houses, I still have another sister having her practice teach in Cebu. I need to pay for their expenses. The cheapest rent of boarding house near their school is 800 per person. It only means I need to pay 2,400 a month for their lodging alone. I know it is not that much but for me, it is quite a lot of money. What about their other necessities like food, tuition fees, etc? As I have tallied my expenses, I found out, in less than a month, I already have sent them more than 20,000 pesos for all their expenses. I couldn’t imagine how to sustain it in the months to come. So with a lot wishes in mind, I literally prayed about it. I asked to find a remedy for my financial situation.

I know it was a miracle in small package because when I asked my sister if she could find an apartment where they could all share together, the following day, she found an available house. The occupants would be vacating the house the next day. And the rent is only 1,500 pesos. I really couldn’t figure out how something like that could have happened as quickly as I asked for it. It was an instant answer to my simply prayer.

As I was writing this journal, I was in exhilaration savoring a little miracle I just have. From the fellowship with friends in SFC, I rushed to the terminal to catch for the shuttle bus for the 10-PM ferry boat to Cebu. It was 6:30 then. To my horror, there was no shuttle bus. According to the teller behind the booth, it was due to Pacquiao’s defeat in boxing. Hilarious reason! A guy pointed out his pouted lips to another bus, the Benjie bus. I looked at its horrible vandalized-looking body and gasped. “Lord, thanks but don’t I have any other choice? You know how much I hated that bus.” In an instant, coming from nowhere, a van driver waved at me. “Boss, are you going to Ormoc?” Right there and then, I hopped in the empty van beaming at myself. Now, what do you call that?

Calling it a pure coincidence is a sign of arrogance assuming we understand everything in life. I believe there are some things in life that are just beyond the boundaries of our capacity to understand. Miracle is one of those things.