Modern Day Miracles

Even with all of the trials life presents, I still want to believe in miracles.  I can’t stop thinking about an amazing story I read about in the news a few days ago.  Four police officers discovered an overturned car in a river in Spanish Fork, Utah.  The four officers claimed that they heard a woman’s voice screaming “Help” repeatedly as they tried to rescue the occupants of the car.  However, when the officers were able to flip the car over, they discovered the young woman at the wheel had sadly passed away, but there was an 18-month-old baby in the backseat still very much alive.  The baby, thankfully, was rescued, however, the officers were left with two unanswered questions:  1) How did the 18-month-old baby, Lily Groesback, survive in the car overnight hanging upside-down over water?  And 2)  Who was the woman screaming for help?  It couldn’t be the 25-year-old mother, Lynn Groesback, who had sadly died several hours before the officers had arrived on the scene.  However, all four officers still claim they heard a woman screaming for help from inside the car.  The officers still have not discovered who had screamed.   I don’t want to read any more about this story.  I don’t want a logical explanation.  I want to believe that the baby had guardian angels and a mother’s love protecting her.

This story made me think of something I had witnessed a few years ago.  My mom and I were driving through Palm Springs, California.  We had to stop at a red traffic light at the intersection of Ramon Road and Sunrise Way, which is one of the busiest areas in the city.  As I sat in the car on Ramona Road waiting for the light to turn green, I turned my head to the right and noticed a young woman walking across Sunrise Way.  The woman was obviously jaywalking but she seemed oblivious to the danger she was creating.  Mom and I watched as the young woman stopped for a moment on the wide medium.  The woman looked around for a moment before unwittingly stepping down off the medium right in front of a car speeding down the road.  I caught my breath and Mom grabbed my arm as we realized that the young woman and the car were on an obvious collision course!  Suddenly, I gasped in surprise as I saw the young woman floating up into the air!  The woman hadn’t jumped or ran.  She was literally lifted up for a moment and held hovering over the road before she suddenly floated backwards and landed safely back on the medium again as the car shot past her.

Mom’s grip on my arm tightened as she squealed, “Jamie, did you see that!?  Did you see that!?”  I suddenly felt relieved hearing Mom’s question.  I hadn’t imagined the event; she had seen it, too!  “That woman,” Mom continued to say after taking a deep breath, “she was saved!  Someone…something…saved her!”  Mom and I stared at the woman as she now stepped down off the medium and safely walked across the intersection and down the street.  Mom and I both silently contemplated what had just happened as I now drove across the intersection.  I don’t think either one of us knew what to say.

I had a similar experience about two years before that.  I was driving home from a friend’s house.  For some reason, I kept thinking about a bad car wreck I had been in a few months before.  The memory created a lot of anxiety in me.  My hands began shaking even though I was tightly hanging on to the wheel.  I began to say over and over in my mind, “I don’t want to be in another car wreck.  Oh, please, God, I don’t want to be in another car wreck.” This thought was running through my mind almost like a litany as I stopped at a red traffic light.  “God, please, don’t let me be in another car wreck.”

Just as the light turned green, I heard a voice in my head suddenly say, “DON’T MOVE.  HE’S RUNNING A RED LIGHT!”  I didn’t move.  I sat frozen in place.  I felt temporarily paralyzed because I couldn’t raise my right foot off the brake to step on the gas.  Suddenly, a car came shooting across the intersection from the cross street, running right through the red light.  Oh, my gosh, if I had moved, I would have been right in the middle of the intersection when the car came speeding down the road.  The other car would have hit me right on the driver’s side door!  Once the car was out of the intersection, my right foot was suddenly released and I was able to shift it from the brake to the gas pedal.   I drove home then, peaceful and calm.  My anxiety had completely disappeared as I thanked God for his protection and many blessings.  I’m very fortunate that I learned to believe in miracles at a very early age.   I constantly have visions of angels and conversations with those who have crossed over.

Life is full of so many incredible, unexplainable happenings.  Miracles didn’t stop happening 2000 years ago.  Miracles are still happening today….we just need to know how to look for them and feel blessed.  I really don’t want to write anything more about this.  I really don’t want to say anything more about beautiful baby Lily and the young woman on the median.  I just want to be quiet now and listen to the spirits speak.

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New Year’s Eve

I should have known better than to go to the grocery store on New Year’s Eve.  I knew that the store would probably be busy with last minute customers who were preparing a New Year’s celebration that night.  I could have probably waited for a couple of days to go to the store.  I just thought it would be easier to pick up a few groceries now on my way home from the gym.

The parking lot of the grocery store was crowded but I finally found a space in a small side parking lot and carefully eased in between two large SUVs.  I parked the car and ran into the store.  Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to grab the few things I needed and, within twenty minutes, I was back in my car ready to drive home.

But before I could start my car, I suddenly caught some movement in my rearview mirror.  I turned to my left and looked over my shoulder.  An elderly man was carefully walking between my car and the SUV parked on the left side.  I sat in the car waiting for the man to get into the passenger side of the SUV.  He was a large man, well over six foot, and heavyset.  His pure white, wavy hair was cut short and his large glasses sat squarely on his round fleshy face.

I stared at him for a moment and tried to be patient as I waited for him to get in his car.  I was anxious to get home now and it seemed to be taking this man a long time to move out of the way.  Maybe he didn’t know I was waiting, I thought.  Maybe he couldn’t see me.  I waited another minute and then started the car. I didn’t want to scare him, but I just wanted to go home now.  The man looked up at me for a moment and then opened the front passenger door and started to climb inside.  For a moment, he struggled to get his large body into the car.  Then, as the man pushed himself forward, his door came hurtling at my car and smacked against my back driver’s side door with a loud Thwack!  The impact was so strong, my whole car rocked from side to side for a moment .  I turned back around in my seat to stare at the man as he resumed the process of getting into the car.

I started to roll down my window.  I didn’t know what I was going to say.  I hadn’t prepared for a confrontation.  I should however get out and check my car.  But then, I looked at the man who was now half in and half out of his car.  My furious eyes locked with his tired grey eyes. Despair and loneliness were etched into a face full of wrinkled grief and saggy sadness.  I couldn’t say anything then.  Instead, I met his eyes, smiled at him, and  put my window back up.  I waited until the man was finally settled into the car and shut his door.  I looked again behind me and began to slowly ease out of the space.  As I backed up, I meet the man’s eyes again, and I suddenly held up my hand and waved to him.  He never smiled or said anything, but slowly his hand came up and he waved back.  A strange look of surprise covered his face.

I pulled out of the parking space and drove home.  As I got out of the car, I looked at my back passenger door.  A thin, small, shallow scratch was carved into the grey paint.  I thought about the incident as I smiled then and traced the scratch with my fingertips.  It’s a car; it’s only a car…and if you’ve seen my car, you know it ain’t no Cadillac!  Besides, my car is hardly ever clean. The inside of my car looks like I’m going on a five-day road trip; the outside looks like I’ve just returned.  The additional scratch, I decided, just gave my car more character.  What difference does it really make anyway?  What would I have said to the man?  Would I have gotten angry?  Screamed at him?  Yelled?  What right did I have to attack the man’s dignity over a minor accident?  The car certainly is not worth the worth of an elderly man.  What did a small scratch mean in the whole scheme of things?

I started to laugh at the absurdity of life and the changes that have happened to me in the past year.  My gosh, how I have changed.  A year ago, I might have gotten upset.  A year ago, I would have demanded some retribution.   But today, now, it was a year later from the person I used to be.  2015, the start of a new year…and the scratch really didn’t seem to matter.

I walked into my apartment then and my new year’s celebration suddenly began early.  I usually wait until midnight on December 31.  But my emotions were beginning to run over.   I thought about the elderly man.  I thought about the incident.  I thought about all the struggles, joys, and challenges in my life over the past year and I started to cry.  I sat on the floor of my studio apartment and cried for the man and cried for myself and cried for the world.

An hour later, I was exhausted.  I glanced at the clock.  It was only 2:00 pm.  Yes, my New Year’s celebration happened very early this year.  I always cry on New Year’s Eve.  I released the old fear and worries.  I cleansed my heart of any lingering sadness.  I prepared my mind for the challenges ahead in the new year. I have washed away the old and I am ready for the new.

I rolled on the floor and laughed for a while before finally pulling myself up.  I turned on my computer and continued working on the novel I had started a few weeks ago.  My mind and heart were so clear, I could suddenly see the world around me in a whole new way.  I am ready now for the joys, challenges, and changes the new year will offer!

Have a safe and happy 2015, everyone!