As a hospice volunteer I can be found almost every Monday visiting with my hospice patients. Each one of them is very special to me. They have taught me what is really important in life. Our relationships over the months have grown into real friendships as we share so much of who we are as people and of our life histories.

Recently I had a conversation with one of my patients about miracles. Mrs. J, as I call her, was sharing with me how the Lord has performed so many miracles during her life that she literally couldn’t keep track of them all. She knows what a blessed life she has had because the miracles just keep coming. I asked her, out of all of the miracles she has experienced, which ones were the biggest or most memorable. Mrs. J told me something so profound that I will remember it forever. She said the miracles are the things we seldom pay attention to: a gentle cool breeze on your face on a hot day, a ray of sun on your back on a cool day, a beautiful bird outside your window, or an unexpected visit from someone you have missed seeing.

She went on to say that a lot of miracles we just don’t want to take in as miracles. Either we don’t notice these little things, or when we see and experience them we think of them as unimportant. But when we really think about these little miracles and allow them to take hold of our spirit, we realize how many miracles the Lord does indeed send our way.

I have to admit, when I asked Mrs. J about the biggest or most memorable miracle, I was waiting for her to tell me about a miracle at church, a time when she was healed or a time when one of her children was healed. But she answered the question in a way that was honest, true and quite profound. We live such hurried lives nowadays that these simple miracles are lost on us.

I let Mrs. J’s words sink into my spirit. I now look around at the world I live in and see the little miracles around me: the slobbery kiss of my Saint Bernard, the first laugh of a newborn baby, the beautiful white of new fallen snow, the quick wit of a good friend, the rumbly purr of my kitty cat, the warm embrace of my husband, the tears of love my mother sheds every time we say good-bye, the purple and pink sky at night, and the “I love you” from my son. All of these are miracles from the Lord.

In the Christmas card I gave to Mrs. J, I told her “Thank you for making it Christmas every day I am with you.” You see, Mrs. J reminds me every time I am with her that the greatest miracle is the gift of the baby Jesus in the manger; the Lord’s love transcends all hurts, pain and grief and our real treasures are stored up in Heaven, not here on Earth. And then her quiet and mischievous laughter reminds me that life is indeed made up of simple treasures.

My Mrs. J, you see, is in a nursing home. After years of being a diabetic, she finally had to get both of her legs amputated. Her diabetes is slowly taking away her eyesight as well. She could moan about the misery she is in and it would be understood by those of us who interact with her. However, her greatest joy is to “let her light shine” as she tells others of the Lord, to share a story or two of how she made it through, and to share all of the love her heart can produce. She believes we all have miracles around us that we need to be thankful for and in turn that thankfulness turns our sorrows into joy.

Quite simply, becoming a friend of hers is my miracle.