The Day the Amaryllis Bloomed
By Julia A. Keirns
I read a book once about miracles. It said that miracles occur every day, only most of the time we don’t see them because we aren’t paying attention. If you aren’t paying attention and actually looking for a miracle, one will happen and you will miss it.
That book inspired me to begin searching every day for little miracles. Of course, being an ordinary, every day type of person, I didn’t find any. I knew I didn’t have the power to make my own miracles happen. I started to think I just wasn’t special enough or worthy enough for any miracles to happen for me. Then my dad died of cancer, and all that changed.
When someone you love is suffering, you tend to lose sight of what is eternal. Actually looking for miracles became the farthest thing from my mind. Instead I began praying for only one thing. There was only one miracle I wanted. I prayed, “Heal my dad and take away his pain.” Through all the months of his illness, that was my daily prayer. I was only asking for one thing, one miracle. It’s not like I was asking for a bunch of outrageous little miracles all the time. Just one. “Heal my dad and take away his pain.” I prayed it every day.
Our family was, and still is, a very close family. We all have a strong Christian faith. The thought of losing Dad was beginning to take a toll on all of us. We were losing sight of the eternal. I had quit looking for those little daily miracles to occur in my life. I had heard though that they sometimes will sneak up on you when you least expect them. That is why they get missed. I sure never expected a miracle on the day my dad died. After all, it was too late for my miracle at that point. Or was it?
Dad had done everything he could to hang on until Christmas. We all knew the end was near so we tried to make it the best Christmas ever. We knew it would probably be our last one with him. Once Christmas was over, there was really nothing else left for Dad to hang on for or look forward to.
My brother had bought him an Amaryllis plant around Thanksgiving time and seeing that Amaryllis bloom was about the only thing Dad had left. He mentioned it every day. He watched and waited. January came and it was a very gloomy month. Funny how the weather can so easily portray your inner feelings. There had been no sunshine for days. Seeing the sun shine, and seeing the Amaryllis bloom were the only two things Dad looked forward to. It was really quite sad. I couldn’t understand why the sun wouldn’t shine, and that stupid plant was making me mad. Usually an Amaryllis plant will bloom about six weeks after you start watering it. We all knew the six weeks was up and it should bloom any day.
At 9:00 a.m. Friday morning, January 10, 1992, my dad looked over at the Amaryllis plant and said, “I wish I could have seen it bloom.” At 9:10 a.m. he died.
The bud was large and we knew it would be breathtakingly beautiful when it bloomed. Dad just wanted to see it. As he said goodbye and breathed his last, all I could think of was why. Why couldn’t that stupid plant just have bloomed for him? He had fought so hard to hang on and it wasn’t fair. For those few fleeting moments of pain, I was bitter. I felt like Dad had been disappointed. I remember crying out to God silently, “Why? Why couldn’t you just have opened that bloom for him? Why couldn’t you have given him that one last joy? Why God? Where are your miracles for me?”
Well, as many of you know, when someone dies you become very busy, very fast. There were a hundred phone calls to make, songs and hymns and favorite bible verses had to be chosen, funeral arrangements had to be discussed. Friends and neighbors almost immediately began bringing food to the house. Mom needed taken care of. The kids all had to be picked up at school and told about grandpa. Somewhere in the midst of the hustle and bustle we almost missed it. We almost missed the miracle God sent for us. I believe to this day, it was God’s miracle to me. He needed me to know that He was still there.
Whatever the reason, that was the day the Amaryllis bloomed. I don’t remember exactly who noticed it first, but we all stopped. Everyone in awe and silence. What could we do but just admire it’s glorious beauty. Oh, and how absolutely beautiful it was. For each one of us, that Amaryllis plant blooming may have meant something completely different, but to me it meant, “See Julie, I do hear your prayers. Be joyful and rejoice today that your father is in heaven with me now. I have answered your prayer. I have healed him and taken away his pain. His heaven is filled with blooming Amaryllis plants. This one needed to bloom for you.”
I cried at the sight of the bloom and I asked God’s forgiveness for my doubt.
Yes, I do believe in miracles. They are all around us, in the every day happenings of our lives. We don’t stop long enough to see them, and we get so busy we forget to look for them. Stop worrying about whether or not you are special enough or worthy enough to receive miracles in your life. You are. We are. I am. And God is able, every single day.