Miners, Miracles and Tragedy

Not my usual subject, but....

Last night, like many people on the West Coast of America, I went to bed Tuesday night amid media headlines of the miraculous rescue of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia.As a person of faith, I was moved to express my thanks to G-d on behalf of those men and their families.

This morning, I found out, along with the rest of the world that the initial story was wrong, and that only one miner had survived.

The media spin on this is on how the media was `taken in', soundbites focusing on the understandably outraged families of the miners and an orgy of fingerpointing.

Was I distraught to find out that the miracle I was so happy about had in fact not happened? Yes and no. G-d's judgements are always fair, to my mind, and the reasons are not always self-evident. There is a divine purpose, somehow, in this. I don't have a clue as to what that might be. But I still see G-d's hand in all this somehow.

It is a miracle that even one miner survived in an atmosphere where the carbon monoxide levels were over three times the level normally thought of as fatal, and that this man survived after the air supply in his self contained breathing apparatus had long since run out. Mining experts are baffled and have no answers on how Randal McCloy managed to stay alive.

Why him, but not the others? I can't say..but I consider it a miracle nevertheless.

What is a miracle, anyway? Can you quantify it? Can you rate it?
What would you give the survival of Randall McCloy? Two stars? Three?

Either the universe operates on blind chance, or there is a divine purpose behind it. And honestly, I have been the recipient of too many miracles and acts of what I can only consider divine grace in my own life to consider the first option.

My heart goes out to those people that lost family in this tragedy. But I can't help thinking that perhaps we need to get beyond the constant negative focus we seem to have and be more responsive to the miracles we receive in life.

Randall McCloy remains in critical condition, but alive. Send a prayer his way if you can, and reflect on the fact that G-d spared him for a reason.