A Hundred Million Miracles

I remember when, for anniversaries and birthdays, my parents would go off to a Broadway show and dinner.

They would then buy the LP record of the show if it was a musical. I would listen to the LP thousands of times on the “Victrola” in the living room.

One year, the show they went to was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s FLOWER DRUM SONG. The musical is about the Chinese American community, and one of my favorite songs in the show was “A Hundred Million Miracles.” A key part of the song goes like this:

A hundred million miracles

A hundred million miracles

Are happening every day

And those who say they don't agree

Are those who do not hear or see.

There is a very wise and insightful saying that goes as follows: “You cannot fail to be in heaven, but you can fail to recognize it.” I love how A Course in Miracles points out that the greatest miracle is our change in consciousness.

We often can see the grand, majestic, five-star miracles in our lives and in the lives of our family and friends. But I think, all too often, we fail to recognize the small and more “everyday” miracles in our lives. In the song “Everything’s a Miracle,” it is pointed out that it’s a miracle that “there’s anything here at all.”

So with the above in mind, I would like to share a recent miracle that happened to me. I would also like to share the steps I took to prepare to recognize this miracle. I wish I could tell you that I always operate at such a wonderful level. The reality is that this is still above my “pay grade.” But I think I am making real progress.

We were back in Virginia, and I take several medications. I place a monthly supply of two prescriptions in a bag and then place the remaining bottles in a box in a closet in the master bedroom. It was time to pack up the Virginia house and get ready for the move to Sacramento. Some people were over to help us pack, and one of them asked if he should pack up a closet in the master bedroom. I said, “Thank you, yes.”

A few days later, the moving van arrived, and all the boxes and furniture were loaded on the truck. Off went the moving van. But then I panicked. I realized that I only had a few days’ worth of the prescriptions in the bag. What would I do if the moving van took weeks to arrive and I ran out of pills? What would happen if I could never find the packed box with the remaining bottles of pills?

I started to feel real fear and panic! But then I said to myself, “Rick, the spiritual principles that you talk about—are they something you live by, or are they only something you preach about on Sundays?” I then went off to pray and center. I started to gain real faith that I would be okay and that I should not worry about it. The fear and worry were lifted, and this was the first miracle.

But hold on, because we haven’t reached the punchline yet. When I got to Sacramento, I only had about two or three more days’ worth of the medication. However, the moving van took far less time to get from Virginia to Sacramento than was expected. The movers unloaded the over 150 boxes, furniture, and who knows what else. But all the boxes were so nicely labeled by the people who helped us that it was easy for the movers to put things in the right room.

So I walked into our new master bedroom, and I felt that the box with the pills would probably be in this room. However, I could feel fear rising again, because there were a ton of boxes in the master bedroom, and I worried that I would never find the right one.

Once again, I centered through prayer and faith. I felt calm and confident. I looked at the numerous boxes and saw one labeled: Master Bedroom/Shoes. Well, the place where I had put the remaining pill bottles was in the closet that also holds shoes.

I opened this box, and in the very first box I opened, there was my medication! Yes, I believe that was an “everyday” miracle. In a new house up to its eyes in moving-related clutter, I found what I was looking for in the very first box I opened. If that isn’t Dr. Carl Jung’s “synchronicity,” then I don’t know what is.

But what was also a miracle was the peace I felt during this moving process regarding the “lost pills.” I mean, I could see myself in the past—afraid for two weeks over this and thinking I’d wind up in the operating room in a near-death situation.

Miracles are happening in our lives every day, and the biggest miracle really is “the peace that passes all understanding” when our consciousness changes and is in sync with Spirit.

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick