A Little Miracle
Life's a little thing! Robert Browning once wrote. But a little thing
can mean a life. Even two lives. How well I remember. Two years ago in
downtown Denver my friend, Scott Reasoner and I saw a tiny and
insignificant change the world, but no one else even seemed to notice.
It was one of those beautiful Denver days. Crystal clear and no
humidity, not a cloud in the sky. We decided to walk the ten blocks to
an outdoor restaurant rather than take the shuttle bus that runs up and
down the Sixteenth Street Mall. The restaurant, in the shape of a
baseball diamond, was called The Blake Street Baseball Club. Tables were
set appropriately on the grass infield. Many colorful pennants and flags
hung limply overhead.
As we sat outside, the sun continued to beat down on us, and it became
increasingly hot. There wasn't a hint of a breeze, and the heat radiated
up from the tabletop. Nothing moved, except the waiters, of course. And
they didn't move very fast.
After lunch Scott and I started to walk back up the mall. We both
noticed a young mother and her daughter walking out of a card shop
toward the street. She was holding her daughter by the hand while
reading a greeting card. It was immediately apparent to us that she was
so engrossed in the card that she did not notice a shuttle bus moving
toward her at a good clip. She and her daughter were one step away from
disaster when Scott started to yell. He hadn't even got a word out when
a breeze blew the card out of her hand and over her shoulder. She spun
around and grabbed the card nearly knocking her daughter over. By the
time she picked up the card from the ground and turned back to cross the
street, the shuttle bus had whizzed by her. She never knew what almost
happened.
To this day, two things continue to perplex me about this event. Where
did that one spurt of wind come from to blow the card out of that young
mother's hand? There had not been a whisper of wind at lunch, or during
our long walk back up to the mall. Secondly, if Scott had been able to
get his words out, the young mother might have looked up at us as they
continued to walk into the bus. It was the wind that made her turn back
to the card-- in the direction that saved her life and that of her
daughter. The passing bus did not create the wind. On the contrary, the
wind came from the opposite direction.
I have no doubt it was a breath from God protecting them both. But the
awesomeness of this miracle is that she never knew. As we continued back
to work, I wondered at how God often acts in our lives without our being
aware. The difference between life and death can very well be a little
thing.
Miracles often blow unseen through our lives!
-- By Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal
From: Small Miracles II: Heartwarming Gifts of Extraordinary
Coincidences, Copyright (c) 1998, ISBN 1580620477,
http://isbn.nu/1580620477
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