Our divine purpose is to be miracles to each other

I recently read an insightful book called “Be the Miracle: 50 Lessons for Making the Impossible Possible.” Author Regina Brett wrote about ordinary men and women who made a difference in other’s lives. The actions they took became miracles for the people they helped.

Sometimes we think of miracles as being extraordinary manifestations of the power of God. I have spent the last forty years collecting these kinds of miracles—healings, answers to prayer, sacred dreams, impressions from the Holy Ghost, bringing the dead back to life, etc.

But Regina Brett rightly reminds us that we can cause miracles to happen by helping one person at a time in seemingly small ways. She wrote, “Want the world to change for the better? Want to see a miracle? What are we waiting for? Why not be the miracle?”

Here is a wonderful story of some ordinary people who allowed God to work through them and thereby “became” the miracle.

Cindy Anthony was a hard-working nurse in a hospital pediatric unit. One day as she left work, she was tired and grumpy. It had been a very difficult day. She saw some beautiful flowers at the security desk. When Cindy commented about them to the woman at the desk, she told Cindy she could have them.

She was delighted. Cindy gratefully thought about her Heavenly Father and was sure He had sent these beautiful flowers to help her after a particularly hard day at work.

As she walked out of the hospital, she saw a woman in a wheelchair ahead of her. Cindy was a little annoyed at how slow she was moving but was able to slip past her. The wheelchair-bound woman stopped her and said, “Oh, what beautiful flowers.” Cindy thanked her and continued walking to meet her waiting husband who had come to pick her up. She was excited to show him her flowers.

Suddenly, Cindy had an impression: the woman in the wheelchair needed the flowers more than she did. She stopped walking. At first, she resisted the prompting; she loved those flowers and wanted to show her husband how Heavenly Father had blessed her after a difficult day. But then she turned around and asked the woman, “Would you like these flowers?”

“Oh, yes!” she replied, “I would love them.”

Cindy gave them to the woman and turned to leave, but then heard her sobbing. 

“Are you all right?”

“My husband passed away several years ago. It has been more than a year since any of my children have visited me. I have been pleading to God to show me a sign that He loved me. Now I know that He loves me.”

Cindy’s heart broke. As she said goodbye, she also started to cry. Truly, she had become the miracle for one of God’s forgotten children.

Cindy’s husband had watched this drama unfold from his car but could not hear the dialogue. He was perplexed about why his wife had given away the flowers he had sent her because he also had had an impression that day. He had felt earlier in the day that his wife was having a bad day, so he immediately picked up his phone and ordered roses to be delivered to the hospital. So why was she giving away the flowers he had sent?

When Cindy explained the whole story, he was relieved and then said, “If those weren’t the flowers I sent you, where are they?”

They drove to the florist and discovered that the order had been forgotten. The flower shop prepared a beautiful new bouquet of flowers. When he handed Cindy the flowers, even more beautiful than the ones she had given away, she began to cry again. She thought to herself, “Heavenly Father had asked me to sacrifice those flowers, knowing that there was something better waiting for me and also that His lonely daughter needed a reminder of His love” (January 2015 Ensign magazine).

I recently fell in love with a verse from the Book of Mormon: “Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings” (Mosiah 8:18).

I believe that we were put on this earth not just for our own benefit, but to help others on their journey, to be a great benefit to others. I know that as we look for small and simple ways to serve others, we will “be the miracle.”



Jonathan Woodstock’s new book “Has the Day of Miracles Ceased? 100 True Latter-day Miracles” will be released by Cedar Fort Publishing on April 12, 2022. See his website at www.hasthedayofmiraclesceased.com.