Miracles are not magic. They are events that make us pause and think. The word comes from the Latin miraculum, object of wonder. Even when they appear to defy the laws of nature, we think that this is not the case – they are unusual ways in which God interacts with nature (in smaller ways, we also interact with nature without breaking any natural laws). Then there are miracles that are not by any means supernatural but are just as important as signs – the miracle of human love, the miracle of forgiveness, or the miracle of perseverance in the face of great injustice or adversity.

A more difficult question is why miracles do not happen every time we pray for them. There is no easy answer to this, but the explanation may have something to do with free will, and something to do with God’s long-term plan – we believe He is a God who provides, sometimes in ways we do not expect