A rabbi and a priest get into a collision. Neither is hurt. The rabbi says, “Look at our cars. There's nothing left, and it is a miracle we are unhurt. This must be a sign that we should live together in peace." The priest agrees. The rabbi continues, "This bottle of wine didn't break. God wants us to celebrate our good fortune." He hands the bottle to the priest who takes a few big swigs, and tries to hand it back.
The priest asks, "Aren't you having any?"
The rabbi replies, "No... I think I'll wait for the police."
Most everyone today has come into contact with one miracle story or another. Some are especially close to events that defy the laws of nature. Window washer Alcides Moreno, who plunged 47 stories and survived, became a believer in miracles.
Moreno’s brother was killed in the event, but he himself needed 24 pints of blood, was in a coma for 17 days, and still woke up and spoke on December 24, 2007.
Doctors said that when falling above 10 stories, patients usually go to the morgue, though one patient survived a 19-story fall, and even that was less than half the distance Moreno fell.
Morgan Freeman in The Power of Miracles explores the relationship between medicine and miracles. Some say medicine is a conduit to the will of God. Faith and medicine have worked hand in hand since ancient times.
Passover is an ancient feast related to miracles. From ‘nissi,’ a word which means miracles, we get the month of Nissan or redemption. The physical and spiritual meet in the month of Nissan. This is the month of Passover and spring, the renewal of life.
Another example of faith working with medicine is the story of physician and pastor Tom Renfro, who was dying of lymphoma. After much prayer from his faith group, Renfro said God told him it was time to go to the hospital for treatment. Chemotherapy was started and within 48 hours the tumours which were literally killing him softened and started disappearing.
Eighteen years later Renfro is still testifying about this faith and medicine cure. Morgan Freeman talks of the connection between the mind and the supernatural. “The human mind could have a hidden power to unleash a miracle,” Freeman says. Miracles give us hope and drive us to create reality out of possibility.
The real miracle, Freeman says, is the transformation of the human mind to practise love, compassion and forgiveness. This lines up with the Buddhist belief that we are all capable of much more than we know.
In his exploration of Chinese Darwinism, Freeman looks at feng shui, which claims that everything is connected. ‘Feng’ means wind and ‘shui’ means water. “The bird does not fly,” Freeman says, “it is carried on the wind,” just as the fish does not swim but is carried on the water.
So is the divine influence in our lives. We need to learn to ride the wind, to trust in God’s creative power moving in us. Faith and prayer work with God, just as faith and medicine go hand in hand.
Freeman concludes, "I believe we should believe in miracles because miracles, however you define them, give us hope. They drive us to create reality out of possibly."
