There are many aspects of life that we don’t understand, yet accept. Those things we can’t see, those extraordinary and inexplicable things that sometimes happen to us. Amazing things, because life itself is a miracle.
Here’s a passage concerning some of those inexplicable events from one of my novels, historical fiction, entitled, The Wind That Shakes the Corn. The narrator is a determined woman who has been through a lot in her life, including the American Revolution. The headstrong character, James, is her grandson. The boy, Story, is her great grandson, and the son of a very unsavory British officer who the narrator has murdered.
I could not shake the notion that the constant chill on the back of my neck was Story’s un-dead father, waiting in the offing for his chance to do us dirt. I’d revealed to no one the strange, extinguished campfire I’d seen just beyond the mouth of the cave, or that when I touched it, the ashes were still warm. I did not mention my distress when, on the very next night, I saw its glow creep around the aperture in the rock and heard a sound of cynical amusement rise from behind the hedges. The dead do not come back, I told myself. Nevertheless, my fear of it remained.
I came close to cautioning James about the danger of the un-dead, but he would have ridiculed my warning as only a daydream. Already, he scoffed at the idea that his healing was a miracle, as did his nephews. Self-importance did not allow them to recognize the extraordinary, but whether they gave it credence or not, James’s cure and mine were far from the ordinary.
Always, I accepted the presence of miracles–that water flowed, that air moved and fire burned, that seeds grew in the earth, and babies formed within women. But I had paid little heed to other phenomenon, that part of our nature that draws from the divine. A man can love, beyond hating. He can hope, beyond despair.
All life–the seen and the unseen–is truly amazing. But do we see it that way?
Do we notice the goodness in others or only their pettiness? A person can be both, of course, and that in itself is amazing. It’s called ‘free will,’ that gift God gave us because He loves us so.
God wants us to love Him back, wants us to seek Him out in every aspect of our lives. How amazing is that?
The fact is that God is with us every minute of our lives. His hands reach out for us continuously. Sadly, we often don’t care enough to notice. We turn in an opposite direction, a direction that is superficial and plays only to our temporary life on this Earth.
God offers us more. He offers us Eternal Life.
Now, that’s amazing!
Translating a World on the Edge 