BRIAN—Hi, Sean. I read your story yesterday about miracles and it really hit a nerve…
I wanted to share one of my own miracles with you from when I was 23 years old and my wife gave birth, she died after delivery from sepsis and I was sure my life was over.
I thought about putting my daughter up for adoption because I didn’t think I was man enough to raise her alone and I wanted her to have the best life she could ever have, even if it wasn’t with me.
Holding my daughter on that first night I felt an overwhelming peace that it would all be okay and I should raise my daughter, knowing that I would have lots of help from above. My daughter is fifty-eight now. Thank you.
CHERYL— My miracle was when mom had cancer after she retired. They all told her there was nothing they could do.
My mother lived until age ninety-two.
BENJAMIN—I was in a car accident when I was coming home from work and I rear ended a logging truck. I probably should have died, but I am alive because of a man who was passing by me and pulled me from my car.
DOROTHY—When [my sister and I] were girls our dad and mom were going to get divorced and me and my sister were living in fear… Because my mom wasn’t a stable person and we also knew my dad was going to leave us.
My aunt showed up that night unexpectedly to take us to come live with her in Arizona. My mom ended up in an institution for people dealing with mental issues and my dad totally disappeared.
My aunt said that it was a dream that woke her up and told her to drive those six hours to come get us and raise us.
GRACE—I’m not ready to share what happened to me yet, but please know that I received a much needed miracle yesterday.
BOB—You can call me a hater, but I do not believe in your supernaturalist crap.
JESSICA—My dad always told a story about when he was a teenager operating a wheat combine in Kansas… He almost got his leg cut off, his pants got stuck, and he was crying out for help when some children and teenagers showed up and pulled him free. He said they just disappeared and nobody ever knew who those kids were.
DON—My late wife transformed this former atheist and retired college professor into a man who believes. It was my wife’s life and her demonstration of real love that gave me evidence of the divine. I miss her, for she was my miracle. Thank you for writing about miracles.
ANTONIO—Here’s something for you Sean: “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or the life of another.” Hellen Keller.
TERESA—I was 38 years old and I blamed myself after losing my husband to suicide. I did not see what kind of miracle was happening in my life until my two sons were all grown up and became incredible dads without the mental illness their father struggled with.
I see at this age what kinds of blessings had been happening all along, it was our second chance, but I never could see any of that back then. You can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes.
ANONYMOUS—I was abused as a child… I forgave my abuser this year. This was my miracle.
JUSTIN—Emory University Hospital doctors were my son’s miracle…
ANONYMOUS—I’m having such a hard time in my life right now. Can you pray for me? I want to be happy again.
SARAH (age 9)—My brother and I saw an angel once…
SARAH’S BROTHER MICAH (6): She’s telling the truth.
ANONYMOUS (17)—Please don’t share my name… My baby is a miracle that came from a very bad thing going on in my life.
And even though my family has abandoned me and acts like I’m supposed to be ashamed of [my baby] I am not and will not because she deserves to know she is a miracle her mom always wanted.
Since she was born I have had many people who came to love me when I didn’t deserve their love and showed me real love. I swear to God every morning before I get out of bed that I will make my baby girl feel love since I never did.
ME—May we who need miracles get them. May we who have known miracles create them for others.
And may God bless us, every one.
56 comments
Sandi. - June 6, 2021 6:57 am
Sean, I loved reading about these miracles that some of your readers experienced. Miracles have happened in my life, too, more than I have room to share here. I wish you’d post more articles like this several times a year as a reminder that God that is still in the miracle-working business in the 21st century.
Christa Gettys - June 6, 2021 7:08 am
I have had so many miracles in my life, I’m certain I have forgotten many of them. Yep, I’m saying i have had that many…that all came after I swore my life was over, or that the hell I was going through was more than I would ever be able to stand, that the trials and tribulation were so bad it was breaking me. It takes a while to see the miracle sometime, other times It hits me in the head like a 2X4 and God says, “Be Happy Woman, I love you!” My life has been a never ending hell in some regards, but also full of never ending miracles. I never thought about it this way until I read your article just now. I think I have some thinking to at this 3 am time that I can’t sleep. Grateful to you!!
Karen - June 6, 2021 7:13 am
Just before reading these beautiful tributes to miracles I received a podcast from a friend in which 2 boat captains in California were reunited with a woman they had rescued at sea. 35 years prior they took a different route home from fishing off Catalina Island and spotted an overturned boat and came across a 9 year old who had been the water for 20 hours—the only survivor in her family when their boat capsized. The word miracle didn’t have to be spoken but was certainly there. And then I read your column. Miracles abound everywhere
when our eyes and heart are open
Steve McCaleb - June 6, 2021 7:13 am
I believe that recognizing miracles in your life is a lot like being happy. It all begins with wanting to.
johnnie943 - June 6, 2021 8:01 am
The Blessings of Miracles from God. Thank you, Sean
Kay Williams - June 6, 2021 10:02 am
Bob – mentioned in your commentary. Saying a prayer for him whether he likes it or not!
BJ - June 6, 2021 12:52 pm
I’m sorry for Bob! He’ll have my prayers also.
Ginger Smith - June 6, 2021 10:31 am
Your life is a blessing, Sean. Thank you.
Ann - June 6, 2021 10:39 am
FAITH🙏🏻❤️
Karen Holderman - June 6, 2021 10:55 am
What are beautiful responses you received. You must touch haters in someways since they read your articles. Praying something you write touches their hearts.
Dianne - June 6, 2021 10:59 am
I think we all have at least one miracle story in our lives whether we acknowledge it or not. I know I have had several miracles in my life, and I know they came from God. Thank you for sharing these miracle stories.
Kate - June 6, 2021 11:22 am
To Bob, just because you cannot see the sun on a raining day does not mean it is not there. We all see different things throughout our lives, as our minds are much like a camera, sometimes things are very blurry until we change the focus. And I don’t think you are a hater, you just have a different perspective.
Leigh Amiot - June 6, 2021 11:24 am
I don’t believe Bob is a hater, but maybe a questioner, otherwise these sorts of stories wouldn’t irritate him and he could easily dismiss them.
Rick - June 6, 2021 11:35 am
Sean, I am struggling with a decision to make. An elderly relative is in the hospital and is in a semi private room (the only type the hospital has) and a young man who has attempted suicide is in the room with him. Since I sit with my relative every day, I have heard the young man on the phone ranting to someone about how he just needs a friend and that everyone just wants to see him in a body bag, but generally he is asleep, perhaps sedated. Since I do not know him or his mental state I am reluctant to say anything to him. He has had no visitors that I know about. I read your article on miracles and wanted to make a copy to give to him, and then this morning, I read “some remarks”. I really want to make copies of these two articles and share them with this young man. Maybe it will give him some hope.
Harriet - June 7, 2021 1:35 am
Rick, I read your comment and, yes, that must be hard to listen to. Maybe you can ask the nurses what you can do?
Harriet
anonymous - June 6, 2021 11:40 am
Great thoughts for Sunday morning…or any morning!
MermaidGrammy - June 6, 2021 11:44 am
Poor Bob
Jenny Young - June 6, 2021 1:58 pm
Agreed…Bob needs a miracle.
Linda Vaughan - June 6, 2021 11:58 pm
I hope that Bob’s miracle came in reading about other people’s miracles, performed by people here on earth for others.
Pat D. - June 6, 2021 11:45 am
To Bob…even if you have not recognized any miracles in your life as of yet, you tookk the time yo read this blog and that is your miracle!
God is speaking to you through Sean’s writtings.
God is Good and He is looking out for all of us
To believe in Good is to believe in God
Thank you Sean, for writing this
I wake up every morning and read your stories.
God bless…and Bob!
Dianne Deavours Shafer - June 6, 2021 2:59 pm
Amen, Pat D.
Tom - June 6, 2021 11:48 am
Sean, you have such an amazing ability to connect with the core of all of us. I really have never read/see anything like what you do. But you touch so many in such a deep and meaningful way, always reminding us that we are part of something greater than ourselves, and that we all really do have common experiences which connect us. In these days when it seems so many try to tear all of us apart from one another and create strife and dislike for others, you come and pull us back together, reminding us of goodness, and hope, and laughter, and fun, and love, and miracles, and all the other good and wonderful things we have experienced. You constantly redirect our hearts and minds to good. Thank you.
Jo Ann - June 6, 2021 12:01 pm
Thank you, Sean, for sharing the stories of others. There will always be scoffers, but we believers outnumber them. Sometimes miracles aren’t recognized as such.
Unknown or Deleted User - June 6, 2021 12:14 pm
In a way, your columns are miracles for me. My husband is very ill and is approaching the end of this stage of life. It has been hard for me to see the good all around me during this time. Your columns bring me back to center and help me to know that, in spite of the sadness and difficulties of this time, there are still wonderful things going on in and around me, and there is the knowledge that we are loved. Thank you, Sean.
Denise Walker - June 6, 2021 12:17 pm
Amen
Trilby - June 6, 2021 12:24 pm
So good. God’s plans for us are good. It is important to remember. Thank you ❤️
Jan - June 6, 2021 12:25 pm
Plant a seed and see what grows …
Fran Allen - June 6, 2021 1:12 pm
Many years ago,while driving home North on a three lane on which I ALWAYS drove in the right hand lane for some unknown reason I moved over to the far left lane. There wasn’t any traffic or slower cars to pass or any logical reason to change lanes. A few minutes later a car speeding in the South bound lane came flying over the median and crashed into the far right lane. It all happened so fast and it took me a while to realize that I would have been most likely killed had I been traveling in my usual lane. God is my Co pilot 🙏
Connie - June 6, 2021 1:36 pm
Thank you for sharing everyone’s miracles with us. I know I have had miracles in my life. I’ve survived things that most people don’t know anything about but I stand strong in my belief that God had given me miracles and has been beside me through it all. Love and hugs to you and Jamie.
Chasity Davis Ritter - June 6, 2021 1:51 pm
Your blog yesterday was very important to many people. Thanks for sharing some of their stories. Miracles come in Many shapes and sizes. Some small and some enormous. It’s all in the eye of the one who is receiving it. And just a note to Bob… I feel sad for you. One day maybe your eyes and heart will be opened!! (See how nice I was. I planned to tell him to just get bent!! BUT my southern.. well bless your heart…took over!). Love yours at the end too Sean. May every word you wrote come true!!
Christina - June 6, 2021 2:14 pm
Amen. Thanks for the benediction, Father Sean.
Al Cato - June 6, 2021 2:51 pm
Bob, please continue to come to this blog and read with an open mind and open heart. Good people doing good things because it is the right thing to do are shared here. The miracles cited are deeply personal and are not magical events but are an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Things that happened but should not have happened or happened in the way they did. Yes, miracles do happen in everyday circumstances and in the lives of everyday people. I truly hope that you see one or better still experience one. Blessings to you today and every day.
Leigh Clemmons - June 6, 2021 2:53 pm
Sean, have you ever considered that you are a miracle to so many, self-included?
Your column, your books, your live appearances to which I have personally been to 2, Jamie, your dogs, and following Mother Mary’s exploits on your social media brighten my day as well as cross generations of family and friends. We love you. You make us happy when skies are gray (originality is not my strong suit). You point our attention to the bright spots in this world. You encourage us to do our best to live lives loving whoever God puts in our path every day. I could go on but will stop hear. Don’t want to make you blush.
Miracles are real. Keep sharing them. And tell Mother Mary that I want to be her when I grow up.
Love,
Leigh
P.S. I’m going to be a first time grandmother in August. Apparently, Grandma names are a thing now and grandmother’s are to select their own names. Granny and Grandma are so antiquated 🙄. So any suggestions are appreciated. No Lee Lee as that is taken by a dear friend. My maiden name was Golden so possibly, Goldie, but I occasionally work with a lady by the name of Happy. Her God given name!! So maybe Happy?!
livinthedash - June 7, 2021 2:01 pm
I know you’ll always be “Happy “ (and be prepared for those who want to take that name)!
Dianne Deavours Shafer - June 6, 2021 2:58 pm
Here’s a prayer for Bob who calls miracles “supernatural crap”–I pray for God to work in his heart in a miraculous way so that his eyes will open to the wonders and glory of God.
Nita - June 6, 2021 3:27 pm
Completely aside from the miracles which I do believe, I love the picture you drew! To me the cloud with the sun behind it looks like a mama caressing her baby lamb with another happy one approaching and one looking a little doubtful. I am quite sure my Guardian Angels are on duty full time with all the “close calls” I’ve had.
Lynn Lunsford - June 6, 2021 3:48 pm
Yes! His evidence is all around us.
Mariah - June 6, 2021 4:25 pm
Anonymous: praying for you. Praying for strength, happiness, and joy!
Tim House - June 6, 2021 4:25 pm
Miracles DO happen…
Tim House - June 6, 2021 4:28 pm
Miracles DO happen!
JonDragonfly - June 6, 2021 4:37 pm
I am praying for Anonymous Hard Time. I know God will bring happiness again.
Tom Wallin - June 6, 2021 4:57 pm
Thanks Sean. You are our miracle every day.
Patricia Gibson - June 6, 2021 5:30 pm
Amen! God is always with us through good and bad🙏❤️
Laurel F. Johnson - June 6, 2021 5:48 pm
AMEN!
Maggie Rowe - June 6, 2021 6:05 pm
Sean, I get your column every day and have never left a comment but I appreciate your writing so much. Don’t listen to the haters, please. I am a 68-year-old pastor’s wife and I know miracles happen because I’ve lived them. Please write columns on this anytime!
MAM - June 6, 2021 6:18 pm
Miracles, large and small, happen every day. We simply have to open our eyes and minds to realize them. It took me years to recognize them, but I guess God opened my eyes, and I see many wonders now. God is always with us.
Linda Moon - June 6, 2021 6:36 pm
Storytelling can be holy. A writer I love said that. She also said stories may save us. A couple of years ago someone was supposed to speak at a LIVE EVENT that I had tickets for. He did not speak. But you did, and I’ve always been glad. I met Jamie there, too….an unexpected joy in meeting you both. ANTONIO’s quote from Helen Keller speaks to me most of all. You see, your words and Jamie’s kindness have been miracles for my LIFE. If love is a miracle, then you and your wife have received a miracle from me. May you receive many more…and blessings, too.
Robert L Chiles - June 6, 2021 7:43 pm
Went to seminary a long time ago. Our house had not sold for six months. We ran out of savings, down to the last $15. I got really angry with God and told him so. As our family sat down to our “last supper” a blank envelope appeared under the door. In it was $50. The next Tuesday, our house sold. You can’t tell me there’s not miracles. I’ve seen too many of them.
Joann - June 6, 2021 8:06 pm
Praying for anonymous and Bob.
Mich-Ala snowbird - June 6, 2021 8:24 pm
Anonymous, many of us are praying for you – to see God, hear God, to meet one of God’s angels who you might not recognize but who is delivering the exact message from God that you need right now. God bless you and keep you in his living arms.
Bob, I’m not sure that Sean is a super naturalist, but his interest in natural history certainly extends to enjoying the outdoors with Jamie and the dogs, and I definitely believe that’s a good thing. You aren’t a hater, Bob, and no one here hates you.
Much-Ala snowbird - June 6, 2021 8:25 pm
… in his loving arms, too 😛
Maureen Brown - June 6, 2021 9:52 pm
You, Sean, are a miracle God has blessed me with at a time when I needed you as part of a major, life-changing journey. Im calling it my Growth Year 2021. Thank you and Him with all my heart. Hugs from Trail BC Canada.
Linda - June 6, 2021 10:07 pm
Yesterday and today is A Course in Miracles cliff nore version
pdjpop - June 7, 2021 9:43 am
And the people of the Lord said, “Amen!”
Charlie Mathers - June 10, 2021 12:54 pm
some 50+ years ago, me and the rest of my squad came under machine gun fire. the man in front of me died. i was shot in both legs. the man to the left of me was shot in both legs. the man up the hill and behind me was shot 5 times, and the man down the hill and to my left was shot once. we were exposed on a sand dune so we couldn’t be extracted for 2 hours. my left leg was shot but not fatally. my right thigh was shot apart and i should have bled out in about 5 minutes. i didn’t. i was eventually med evaced to an aid station where weather forced me to stay the night, alive but not getting the surgery i needed. the next morning i was flown to the 85th Evac Hospital in Quien Nyon (sp?). as luck/miracles would have it, a Captain Kouluvek (sp?) had arrived from the states where he knew about a new procedure for repairing damaged arteries with pieces of the patients non-vital veins. He rebuilt my right femoral artery with a piece of vein from my left leg and so doing saved my life and my right leg. that leg is working fine these days thanks to a whole string of highly unlikely “miracles”. Call them whatever you want; i walk my dog twice a day every day and he thinks that is just fine.
You, by the way, are the extremely empathetic and compassionate man you are because of one singular event in your childhood. funny how miracles work, isn’t it. I love you. So did he.
Boyce “stick” Miller III - June 21, 2021 3:07 pm
Thinking about my Daddy
I’ve been thinking a lot about my father lately. Maybe it’s because this will be my fourth Father’s Day without him. Maybe it is because even though the sting of his death has pretty much subsided, I think about him every day. Maybe it is because you pretty much never get over missing your daddy.
I started out to write a loving tribute. Pretty soon I realized I didn’t really like my father very much when he was parenting me. Dashingly handsome, he was rarely thoughtful of others. He could be somewhat of a tyrant, especially where his wife and children were concerned. He could say some pretty hurtful things and I was afraid of him. While he was never physically abusive, he was just never very warm.
He was a hard and smart worker – in the right place at the right time – so we had a sort of privileged upbringing with all the toys. I just never felt like he had much use for his children. Later in life he never really fell into the role of grandfather. Although he was beginning his final illness, he didn’t even attend my daughter’s wedding. Partly at my mother’s urging, he declined for both of them saying that he didn’t want to leave the dogs for the whole day. That was hard for me to accept. I’m sure it hurt Meredith.
My father spent the war in Pennsylvania as a radio operator. Although he wasn’t a war hero, he was a part of that greatest generation. Afterwards, like so many others, he came home, married and went to work. Even though he wasn’t a joiner and never wanted to be part of a service club, I remember that he always took us to church. He always joked that he would have been a preacher except for the fact that it really messes up your weekends.
Sometimes there’s just something that makes us want to be different from our parents. I made up my mind early on that if I ever had a wife and children, they would always come first. Where I got little support in anything I did, my children had my undivided and wholehearted attention. I vowed that I would not look back on my life and regret missing out on my children’s lives, and I don’t. I was there for every boring swim meet and miserable soccer game played. I did enjoy the baseball games – a real American sport – but there were far too few of them.
As different as we were, when he got old and sick we began a process that would lead me to a point in my life that gives me comfort. I made peace with my father and into his last few years we developed a friendship and a real affection that I will remember all of my days. That redemption is what prompts my thoughts today.
At some point late in his life, my father began to soften. At a point in time we switched places; he became the child and I became the parent. Although I wouldn’t wish his illness on anyone, it brought us closer together and cemented our relationship for eternity. I now can remember the good times. For now, when I think of my father, I see a lot of me in him. I look like him and in some ways I act like him. I try not to be quite as controlling as he was, but sometimes even that shows through.
Unlike him, my family is my life. My wife and children know that they are the most important blessings of my life. We have our ups and downs, but I know they know they are loved.
When Mother followed him in death just a few months later, we went through everything in the house in preparation for sale. We threw away a lot of old stuff but I saved a letter that a younger and kinder Boyce Miller wrote to his young wife and son. I cherish that letter written to me 60 years ago from the Windsor Hotel in Americus. In the letter he told me how much he loved me and my mother, and how proud he was of his six month old son. I don’t know what caused him to harden, but I now know how he felt in his heart-of-hearts.
I sat up with him all night when he died. We talked about his old dog Lady and the beach house and the Model T Ford and the Airstream Trailer, and we remembered better times. As he drifted in and out I knew he was relying on me to hang on to him until the end. It was my last chance to “be a man” for my daddy.
When we laid his body to rest on that hillside near the Ocmulgee River in Macon I had no doubts about how I felt and, more importantly, how he felt.
He just didn’t know how to tell me.
Published in the Americus Times-Recorder on Father’s day, May 21, 2009