AMAZING, ASTOUNDING, UNBELIEVABLE, INCREDIBLE
...nine
miracles and counting...
I have defined a "miracle" to be an
event
that has the following two characteristics:
1) Before the event occurred, I would have thought
that the probability of it happening was extremely low. I'm not talking
about a 1% chance or a 0.1% chance. I'm talking about something that is
so improbable that I wouldn't expect it to happen in a lifetime.
2) The event is somehow good for me.
Based on that
definition, I have witnessed 9 miracles. The first four are desribed in my testimony. Others were answers to supplication prayers. And the rest are on this page.
I collect pennies. I have two huge glass
jars that I have
been filling with pennies for many many years. Most people think this
is silly. They find
it ridiculous to collect something as worthless as pennies. However, my
father was one of the few people who respected my collection. Whenever
he saw me, he gave me all of his pennies.
My father died in 1997, and about a month after
that, something strange
began to happen. I began finding pennies much more frequently than I
had before. It was truly bewildering how often I was finding pennies.
So, I
like to think that these pennies are being sent to me from my father...
pennies from Heaven. Whenever I find one, I think of my father, and I
believe that he's watching me.
Over time, the frequency that
pennies come to me gradually
decreased. But I believe that, even today, it is still significantly higher than it was
before my father died.
Then, after May 16, 2004 (the day I met God), I began finding dimes with
an inordinately high frequency. While I had hardly ever found dimes on
the ground before, I began finding them regularly. But there were
also other places I would find dimes a lot. For example, when I bought
lunch at the cafeteria, my change might be something like 54 cents, and
not only did I get four pennies, but the cashier also gave me five
dimes. So now, whenever I find a dime, I think of my God, and I believe
that He's
watching me. Like the pennies, the frequency that dimes came to me
decreased over time, but I think it's still significantly higher than
it was before May 16, 2004.
On the morning of February, 2005, I drove to a metro station
to go to Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the main parking lot was
full, so I had to park further away in the supplementary parking lot. I was in D.C. for a few hours, and then, in the
early afternoon, I returned
to my car. There was something fluttering under
my windshield wiper, like an advertisement or a ticket. But it was
neither. It was a fresh, crisp ten-dollar bill! How could a ten dollar
bill find its way under my windshield wiper? Well my explanation is
that, like the
ten-cent coins, the ten-dollar bill was also given to me by God.
I have tried to train my dog, Queen, not to walk into
the street
without my permission, but apparently, all she has learned is that she
shouldn't walk into the street when I am watching her. When she
doesn't
think I'm looking, she sees no problem with going into the street. And my dog doesn't cross the street. Instead, she wanders around
throughout
the street, sniffing the asphalt here and there.
There is a little wooded area right near my home,
and I liked to take the dogs there and let them run around free. I
wasn't concerned about them getting into any trouble, because there's
plenty to smell in the woods, and it's a good distance to anywhere
were they are likely to encounter any people. And they don't stray very
far from me anyway.
Well, one particularly sunny day, I was sitting in a
grassy area in the woods, reading a book, while the dogs ran free. Then
I got a call on
my cell phone. The man on the another end told me that Queen had run
across Route 123. I was shocked! I drove the car to where he was, and
indeed, there was Queen, on the
far side of Route 123.
Now Route 123 is a highway. There are four to six
lanes
going in each direction, and there are always plenty of cars on it.
It's true that I regularly walk across it without waiting for the
light, but I generally have to wait for a gap in the traffic. My dog couldn't have done that. And
yet, there was Queen, completely unharmed, and there were no signs of
any car
accidents. I find that completely astounding. But this story isn't over
yet.
About a year and a half later, I again received a
phone call from somebody who had caught Queen when she was wandering
through Route 123. Again, she had no injury and there were no car
accidents. And if that isn't remarkable enough, the same thing happened
a third time. And the fourth time she ran across that highway, it was
during rush hour.
I play small-stakes poker with friends about once a month. In February,
2008, we were playing the last game of the night, which is relevant because people tend to bet a little looser
in the last game, more willing to put money in the pot, so this is
often one of the best games of the night to win. We were playing a
poker variant called Hong's Bong. In this game, each player gets one
card in the hole (a card that nobody else is allowed to see) and four
cards face up. Also, there are four face-up "community" cards placed in
the middle of the table, and anybody can use the community cards.
At the end of the game, each player selects a five-card poker hand
with the following restrictions: It must consist of two community
cards, two of the player's up cards, and the player's hole card. Also,
in each of the five rounds, each player is permitted to trade one of
their cards for a new card.
So, I was dealt a hole card of the seven of clubs, and my first up card
was the eight of spades --- not a very promising start. I traded the
eight and received the king of diamonds. Then the first community card
came: The ten of diamonds. In the first round of betting everybody
checked (passed).
My next up card was the ace of diamonds. Since both of my up cards were
diamonds and the community card was also diamonds, I decided to try for
a flush. So I exchanged my hole card for... the queen of diamonds! Now
I just needed one of the last three community cards to be a diamond.
But I couldn't believe it when I saw the next community card was
the jack of diamonds! I had a royal flush!!!
The highest possible hand! Some poker players never get a royal flush
in their entire lives, and here, I had one with four rounds of betting
still to come! But that's not all...
I traded my third and fourth up cards, getting the eight and nine of
diamonds for a seven-card royal flush! I know that I couldn't play a
seven-card hand, but it's still truly incredible. But it gets even
better...
Although it's very exciting to get an incredible hand like a royal
flush, it's not so good if everybody else folds early. However, the
last two community cards were the six of spades and the six of
clubs. I looked at one of my opponent's hands to see that two of his up
cards were the six of diamonds and the six of hearts! He had a four of
a kind --- a huge hand! So, with what will probably be the only royal
flush of my life, I was playing against a hand that was practically
impossible to fold!!!
I haven't calculated the probability that all of this could happen
to me in a hundred lifetimes. But I think it's safe to say that I had witnessed another
miracle.
I have witnessed more miracles, some of which can be found here and here. On average, God shows me miracles about once every 5 months. I certainly
appreciate these miracles, as they make it very easy to maintain my
faith, though I don't need them.
Keep an eye on this page, because I wouldn't be surprised if more miracles are
coming my way...
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