A Personal Miracle

           Miracles aren’t just confined to the pages of scripture.  God is alive and active in the lives of his people, and sometimes he intervenes and does something – a miracle- that defies explanation. 

           I’ve had several such instances in my life, but this is the most memorable. It was March of the year that our daughter, Michelle, died. My wife, Coleen, wanted to get some of Michelle’s personal things to give to Michelle’s children, and for a keepsake for herself.  However,  Ronald (fictitious name) Michelle’s partner, had all of her personal items.  He packed them up, put them into a storage area and then moved into a different apartment.

           Over the next couple of years, Coleen asked him multiple times for access to Michele’s  things, and he refused, citing a variety of reasons as to why he didn’t want to part with them.

           Eventually Ronald married.  His new wif, was very jealous of his earlier relationship with Michelle.

           At a Thanksgiving meal with Ronald and his new wife in attendance, Coleen again asked him for some of Michelle’s personal things.  Ronald announced that his new wife had burned all of it.

           On the way home, I remember talking about it and telling Colen that she was just going to have to let it go.

           At the time, we had a townhouse in Sarasota.  That Spring, just prior to returning to Michigan for the summer, I installed some additional cabinets in the condo.  Coleen had some non-perishable food and household items which she stored in a chest in the closet under the stairs. She emptied the chest into the cabinets, and put the empty chest all the way to the very back of the closet. 

           The chest went into the closet first, taking up the space with the lowest overhead.  Then, we filled the closet with the kinds of things you store in an under-the-stairs closet.

           In the Fall, we returned to the condo.  Coleen had in mind what she was going to fill that empty cabinet with. So, on a Sunday afternoon in the Fall, she began to empty the closet in order to get to the empty chest all the way to the back of the closet. I was reading the Sunday paper. 

           Then, I heard her shriek.  I jumped up to see what was the matter, and she pointed toward the chest.  What we had expected to be totally empty was filled — tightly packed all the way to the brim – with Michelle’s personal things.

           We were stunned. This was impossible.  It could not have been Ronald. He didn’t even know where we lived, had no way of getting into the condo, and wouldn’t have an idea that the empty chest was there.   No explanation made sense. 

           It was clearly a miracle.  We were stunned.  It was weeks before either one of us was able to talk about it.

           As I reflected on this miracle, it occurred to me that we had never prayed for the missing personal things.