The "He may not come when you want Him but He's always on time" Miracle

 miracle - a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency; a highly improbable extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.

"For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thought of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11a)

Knowledge.  Discernment.  Understanding, Wisdom.  These gifts come in stages or phases, although many of us may disagree on the definition of terms.  I use "stages" and "phases" synonymously to depict progression that leads to a "knowingness," or the acquisition of wisdom.  What do I mean, and how do these terms describe the miracle of how God works in my life? Two seemingly disparate concepts account for illumination and growth.

First and foremost, I am a teacher.  I cannot remember when I didn't know this.  An early memory derived when I naturally presumed the "teacher" role around about the same time I celebrated my fifth birthday.  Mother enrolled and left me on the first day of school in September with a strange person  described as "your teacher."  After what seemed like hours, "my" teacher finally controlled my incessant crying by warning, "If you don't stop that crying, I'm going to put you in this pencil sharpener and you'll come out looking just like a pencil!"

What did I know? Nada. Here this strange-looking woman had frightened me more than I'd ever been.  Until then, as the youngest of seven children, I'd spent all day every day under Mother's protective care.  Mother used the Holy Bible as my first Primer, albeit without pictures of dogs and children.  I did not know fear, and I certainly didn't feel abandoned.  Now, however, I felt lost, helpless, and hopeless. Most importantly, I did not know if Mother would return for me!

Of course, Mother picked me up at the front door that afternoon.  I was too traumatized (although I didn't know its meaning at the time), to be anything but relieved that I would go home!  I never told Mother or anyone what the teacher had promised.  I never cried again, either at school or anywhere else, for that matter for years.  

Ironically and before my kindergarten year ended the following June, I'd decided to "teach" Jean, Shirley, and Mona, my three younger cousins. More than anything,  though, we taught each other. I'm trying to remember exactly when I decided to go to college and learn the art of teaching. The decision just sprang up from within.  An avid reader, I chose  English as my major course of study, with an emphasis on secondary instruction.  I later earned a master of education degree in English.  Hmm.

Graduate-level classes introduced me to academic achievement plans, among which the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) addressed the intellectual and social needs of "special education" students.  These students scored from the primary to third-grade levels on standardized achievement tests. Ever the iconoclast, though, I never limited its use to a construct of test scores.  Often, IEPs contained input from parents and other teachers who shared the same students.  

Ever the iconoclast,  I designed IEPs for all students, no matter their reading scores  I believed limiting any student's scope or potential for learning to reading scores was too limiting.  Early on, I determined that all students met the expectations of teachers, whether high or low, up or down.

In contrast, I believe in miracles! I offered definitions of a miracle earlier. I believe equally in the potential of a student scoring from the primary reading (grades 1-3) to gifted (grades 10-12+grade) levels to excel.  I see no contradiction between embracing an Individualized Educational Plan and the dictionary definition of a miracle.   Either-or can't populate the world I seek.  However, I eagerly embrace "And," not opposites.