The Miracles Among Us

I will confess up front: I have always believed in miracles. Small miracles, big miracles, Red Sea Miracles, everyday miracles. In my own life, the unexpected and miraculous seem to happen nearly every day; I experience them often when I am writing, and receive an inspiration or idea that comes seemingly from nowhere. I prefer to believe that experience is G-d acting in my life.

But Dr. Marc Siegel provides in his new book, The Miracles Among Us: How God's Grace Plays a Role in Healing, a different take on miracles: He shows us the relationship between medicine and prayer that combine to provide miracles that would be impossible under ordinary circumstances. He does an excellent job of explaining to the layperson the medical procedures, and then describes the multiple ways that prayer and the spiritual merge to transform a person’s life. My biggest surprise was that it didn’t seem to matter whether a person believed in miracles or G-d or even anything spiritual at all. For reasons we may not be able to explain, people are blessed with miracles whether they wish for them or not.

There were many stories that Dr. Siegel related to make his point that they occur. In one situation, a teenager named John Smith fell through the ice in a lake near his home. Even though he was rescued, the doctors believed they would not be able to save him:

The ambulance arrives and brings John to nearby St. Joseph Hospital. Dr. Kent Sutterer, an ER physician, is the first to see John on arrival. He is not breathing, with no heart sounds, and his skin temperature is so cold it is incompatible with life. John has zero neurological signs. No signs that he will have any kind of life even if Dr. Sutterer’s team is able to start his heart again. He is flatlined dead for more than fifty minutes.

The young man’s mother, Joyce, provided the prayer that likely contributed to his survival:

Joyce feels desperate, and prays, ‘God, you can’t take him from me. It took me seventeen years to get him.’ (John was adopted.) Having been involved in Bible study, Joyce knows the power of God’s words and believing in them. ‘So, I pray, please, God, give me back my son.’

While Joyce keeps praying, the story gets out. People all over the world are praying.

John survived and afterward his life returned to normal.

Another story that many of us are familiar with is the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot during a baseball practice in Washington, DC. Dr. Siegel tells the story:

The gunman’s second shot hits Scalise in the hip—a single shot from a semi-automatic rifle. He falls down. He never sees the shooter, who is over by the third base dugout. On the ground he can still hear gunfire, so he starts crawling away from the sound. He makes it about twenty feet into the outfield before his arms give out.

Scalise starts praying, just to make it through the day.

The quick action of a colleague contributed to his survival.

As soon as Scalise hears ‘shooter down,’ he sees his colleague Congressman Brad Wenstrup. Wenstrup is a doctor and an Iraq War vet. He had considered leaving the practice early, but stayed to get some extra batting practice in. ‘Thank God here’s here to check on me,’ thinks Scalise.

[Wenstrup checks Scalise] Wenstrup is anticipating severe trauma from an exit wound, but he doesn’t find it. He realizes that bullet has gone through his hip and up into his abdomen, which is very bad. Yet somehow Steve is still conscious.

Surviving several difficult surgeries, Scalise never lost his faith:

‘I put all my focus into getting better and not harping on what happened that day. I lean heavily on my faith. When I was lying on the ball field and couldn’t move, and my arms gave out, I decided I was just going to pray and put this in God’s hands. I prayed that I would get to see my family again. I felt the presence of God. . .

‘For all I knew the next shot could hit me, and I would be done. But I never felt fear. Once I put my life in God’s hands, an unbelievable calm and ease came over me. My mind went to a different place. Whatever was going to happen that day was up to God, and he got me through, and I felt him throughout my recovery.’

Dr. Siegel has written a remarkable book of remarkable stories.

For those people who try to separate the scientific/medical from the spiritual/prayer, it’s a moving reminder that there are many experiences of life that are simply beyond our understanding.