Miracles Happen

They say a miracle is something special or extraordinary. They say that a miracle has to be something that everyone will notice. I say they are wrong.

My Christmas miracle started on December 23rd when I was fired from my secretarial job at the law firm. I was so upset that I couldn’t remember walking into The Bar. This place was the roughest place around, and I just couldn’t seem to care less. I drank my night away, and when they finally threw me out, it was 4 in the morning. I couldn’t remember being picked up and brought in from the cold by a nice man who lived nearby.

When I woke up I had a splitting headache. My guess was that I had a hangover, and I was tucked into an unfamiliar bed. Even though it wasn’t familiar, it gave me a sense of security. Beside the bed was a picture of a man and a woman in an exotic jungle, I felt as if I had seen them before but couldn’t quite place where. All of a sudden, a man in his mid-to-late 60s came in with a tray and a warm smile on his face.

He said to me in a low, raspy voice, “I see you are finally awake and alert.” I looked at him blankly, but he just smiled. I finally found my voice and said, “Where am I?” he paused as if pondering this question. With a sense of caution, he finally said, “My name is Gabriel Arch and this is my home.” I gave him a lopsided grin and said, “My name is Kari Montgomery.”

Later on, he told me about what happened after I was thrown out of the bar, and he inquired about what I was doing at The Bar. I told him my entire story about being fired. Afterwards, I learned that his wife had passed away only a few months ago, and now he was helping people who needed to get back on their feet, which had been his wife’s dream. He told me about a job at a school for handicapped kids that had just become vacant. I thanked him for the tip and said that I would check it out.

Some months later, I went back to Mr. Arch’s house to thank him for the tip because he landed me the best job in the world, but he had “moved out” according to his landlord. I then realized where I had seen Gabriel Arch’s face before. In the Bible. A sense of being watched came over me as I realized this; Gabriel Arch was really Gabriel the Archangel. I saw the world in a new light, and right then I knew that there was no escape from angels, because they turn up in the least likely places. I hope that I would see Gabriel again but I highly doubted it, even if I still had a sliver of hope that I would.