On those rare occasions when I feel God has failed ‘me’ I look around to find miracles he’s still performing.

Like most, I’m selfish enough to occasionally step outside that frame of gratitude and feel sorry for myself. Then my world stops as I seek to find a reason to become grateful again. Maybe only a moment, occasionally a little longer. But I always find more than enough reason to be grateful, to feel gratitude and to reassert my own gracious response to the trials that come my way.

Over the last several months, our state has been scorched by fire, troubled by drought and most recently ravaged by evil in the form of a lone gunman who shot up a local theater, injuring 70 people, killing 12 of them. My question as many others were asking, “What next Lord? What else must we endure?” And I forgot to look for the miracle.

Then I saw a photo of the magnificent views beyond the burned destruction of homes in Shadow Mountain. The fire had provided it’s own majestic views, in photos that filled the Internet. But the after effect, majestic mountains, clear blue skies, white clouds and the few pines that remained offered a reminder of the magnificence of God’s creation. The homes can be replaced, and the reminder that God is our provider, lingers.

Droughts come and go in Colorado. The simple drenching of rain clears the air, renews our spirits and brings blessing to the land. No matter how dire the droughts appear, we all know that with the next downpour, our land will be pure again, growing and green. That blessing is obvious.

Then the shooting in Aurora.

What good can come of a shooting where people are injured for life and killed, ending their chance at life? How can that kind of evil be turned to blessing? There is sadness that for some will last a lifetime and longer, loved ones lost, forever… The devastation of disability that will change the form of life for many, and some will never overcome any of that… Others will step up and make a difference, change the world by their stripes, and life will be gratifying and blessed.

In this place, I’m reminded that life is only 10% what happens to us and 90% what we do about it. (But, I’m not personally affected much by these incidents, and I’m unworthy to give judgment, so I recognize that what I say and do matters not much to others.)

But this morning, I opened my facebook and was led to a story of a young woman named Petra (Pay-tra), and the blessing of a miracle that she’s had her entire life and did not know. A miracle that might have been recognized as a birth defect had she known about it… Because she didn’t know that she would be a victim in the shooting of a mad man at a movie theater in Aurora, and that “defect”  in her brain would be the miracle that God created in her to save her life. The miracle created by God, 22 years before the EVIL event that might have ended in tragedy… but instead, has ended in miracle.

I don’t know Petra, but I know Brad Strait, the pastor who sat with her mother who is in the final stages of cancer, during Petra Anderson’s crisis moments. This story is worth sharing. Please click this link – Aurora’s Miracle – and be sure to pass it on to others to read.

If you’ve experienced a Miracle in your own life, I’d love to hear about it… Please share in the comments below.