Miracles Among Us

Miracles among us by Daniel Gardner, Special to the Gazette

Holidays have a way of making us think about things in different ways. Thanksgiving makes us thankful for even the most mundane things we normally take for granted. Giving thanks is on our minds. I’ve been reading “The Miracles Among Us” by Dr. Marc Siegel, his latest book combining his knowledge of medicine with his understanding of miracles. Siegel shares many stories and truths he’s learned from colleagues and friends.

For example, Dr. Robert Redfield who served as Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 2021, shared with Siegel what he had learned in a meeting with Pope John Paul II back in the 1980s.

Siegel wrote what the Pontiff told Redfield about prayer. “The first lesson is not to see God as just an energy force, that doing good things in the world and displaying good energy is the path to heaven. The pope told Redfield that you need to build a personal relationship with God. The second lesson is that prayer is the most powerful tool we have, and that we need to learn how to use it. The third lesson is that there is redemptive value in human suffering.”

I have experienced this in my own life. As one who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, I see daily how little I know about anything in life, particularly about God.

Building a personal relationship with God is not for the timid or double-minded person. Proverbs 30:2-6 is as blunt as any passage of Scripture. “

Surely I am more stupid than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man. Neither have I learned wisdom, nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.” This is the human side of the relationship. Then, we read God’s side. “

Who has ascended into heaven and descended?

Who has gathered the wind in His fists?

Who has wrapped the waters in His garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know! Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar.”

Pity anyone who believes he understands God or even rivals God’s thoughts and deeds!

Indeed, I confess God humbles me every time I turn to Him and He further builds our relationship with His grace and truth. God is the potter. We are all merely the clay.

Dr. Siegel and Dr. Redfield have treated patients every day of their professional lives, and they have personally seen “redemptive value in human suffering.” Certainly, we all suffer to some extent daily, yet we are redeemed by God’s grace.

This year our family and friends will gather around a table filled with traditional American dishes and a smoked turkey. We’ll catch up with each other and tell well-worn family stories so the younger folks can laugh along with us. Nobody deserves blessings like this at all. But that’s the point. God blesses us richly not because of any merit, but solely because He loves us from a Holy heart that was broken for us on Calvary. Page A2 Thursday, November 27, 2025 MAGNOLIA GAZETTE