“Miracles happen  
every day. Change  
your perception of  
what a miracle is  
and you’ll see them  
all around you.”   
Jon Bon Jovi

I first learned about miracles in elementary school. As a student at St. Gabriel School in San Francisco, I was taught that Jesus performed many miracles throughout his earthly ministry. In fact, more than thirty of these miracles are described in the canonical Gospel stories. The Gospel of John mentions the first, when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. All three of the synoptic Gospel accounts include the story of Jesus healing the paralytic who was let down through the roof of a house. Other well-known miracles include the calming of the storm at sea, Jesus bringing Jairus’ daughter back to life, the feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, Jesus walking on water, and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. 

By the time I graduated from 8th grade, I thought I was fairly well-versed in miracles. It’s taken me years to understand that there are so many more than just those mentioned in the Bible — and that miracles are not just old stories from the Scriptures. Miracles happen every day, even today.

It is nothing short of miraculous that I wake up each morning to a new day — a new opportunity to live, love, learn, serve, forgive, and try again.

Do you ever stop to think that without any conscious effort on our part, our heart beats approximately 100,000 times each day? And what about the thousands of times each day when our lungs draw in life-sustaining oxygen, usually without our giving it a thought?

So many things happen around us each day that we overlook simply because we fail to recognize them as miracles: a beautiful sunrise; the laughter of a child; the kindness of a stranger; a seed becoming a flower; the healing of a wound; a baby’s first smile; the ability to remember people and precious moments from years gone by; and the changing of the seasons.

Other miracles, which are often not recognized for what they are, include the nurturing of a friendship, the comfort of a hug, the ability to learn something new, the gift of music, opportunities we have to help other people, and the realization that we are loved. All of these things can be overlooked as just plain ordinary occurrences. We are all challenged and encouraged to recognize the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Sometimes unexpectedly good things happen in our lives, and we might be tempted to think of these things as luck, fate, or coincidence. The older I get, the more I believe that there’s really no such thing as a coincidence. Things happen for a reason. We may not be able to recognize or understand the reason, but many of these experiences, too, are nothing short of miraculous. 

Living with a mindset which includes an openness to and awareness of the daily miracles happening all around me, how could I be anything but grateful?