Rack your mind for miracles and angels, and prep yourself to say 'I am here'

On this Christmas Eve, which is also Hanukkah Eve, I want to ask you a favor. I want you to call to mind and give voice to the miracles in your life. Some of you have written to me in sadness that no miracles have come to you. I would humbly ask you to go back and consider the angels and miracles that might actually have come into your life without you realizing it (see Hebrews 13:2). After all, many miracles often masquerade as good luck. Perhaps that is all they are. Perhaps luck and chance are the only truths of our existence, but there is another possibility. This possibility is that we are surrounded by angels and miracles and all we have to do is open our eyes to the ways God enters our lives for the good. Here is a biblical story to help you on your miracle scavenger hunt. In Genesis 37:13-17 we read:

"And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan."

Perhaps Joseph's encounter with the man was just a bit of good luck, or perhaps the man was an angel of God bearing a life-changing message that on its surface seems quite small. So the brothers were pasturing the flocks in Dothan rather than Shechem. So what? Well, if Joseph does not find his brothers he would never have been sold into slavery in Egypt and he would never have been able to bring his family down to Egypt during the famine and then Moses would never have been able to take the people out of Egypt in the Exodus and then the people would never have come back to the land of Israel and then there would never have been the kingships of Saul, David and Solomon and then the Temple in Jerusalem would never have been built and then Caesar Augustus would never have ordered a census (Luke 2:1-7) and Joseph would never have journeyed to Bethlehem from Nazareth to register, and Mary would never have given birth in the manger and there would never have been Christianity and Tommy would never have been able to become a priest and we would never have met and formed the God Squad and Tribune Content Agency would never have asked us to write a column and you would all be saying, "Gellman? Who's Gellman?"

And all that happened because a man met Joseph in the fields of Shechem! Perhaps it was just luck, but perhaps it was a miracle sent by God through an angel who just looked like a man.

I think one particular spiritual virtue is necessary to see angels and miracles as real and more than just good luck. We must be ready to say to God, "I am here." We must be ready for a divine encounter. When Jacob asks Joseph to go and find his brothers he answers, "Here I am." In Hebrew the phrase is a single Hebrew word, henayne and it means so much more than just "Here I am." It is the word said by Abraham and Isaac during their test by God. It is the word said by Moses when God calls to him. Henayne should really be translated as, "I am ready for this journey." We cannot know when God will call us to embark upon a journey of testing and discovery. What we can know is that we are ready for God's call in our life. Being ready is all that matters. Everything else is just not our business.

And the greatest miracle is that when we are ready for God, God will be ready for us. In Isaiah 58:9 we learn about what God does when we are truly ready, "Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am (henayne)."

May we be ready, not just at this season but in all the seasons of our lives.

Happy Hanukkah!

Merry Christmas!

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