Cost of a Miracle

A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from
its hiding place in the closet. She poured the change out on the floor
and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes.
Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap,
she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall ' s
Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.
She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention,
but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a
scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting
sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar
and banged it on the glass counter. That did it!
"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of
voice. I ' m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven ' t seen
in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question.
"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in
the same annoyed tone. "He ' s really, really sick...and I want to buy a
miracle."
"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.
"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head
and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a
miracle cost?"
"We don ' t sell miracles here, little girl. I ' m sorry but I can ' t
help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little.
"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn ' t enough, I will
get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs."
The pharmacist ' s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and
asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?"
" I don ' t know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. I just know
he ' s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy
can ' t pay for it, so I want to use my money."
"How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago .
"One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered barely audibly. "And it '
s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to."
> "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven
cents--the exact price of a miracle for little brothers. "
He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her
mitten and said , "Take me to where you live. I want to see your
brother and meet your parents. Let ' s see if I have the miracle you
need."
That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon,
specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed free of
charge and it wasn ' t long until Andrew was home again and doing well.

Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had
led them to this place.
"That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real miracle. I wonder how
much it would have cost?"
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost...one dollar and
eleven cents....plus the faith of a little child.
In our lives, we never know how many miracles we will need. A miracle
is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law.

Dagohoy 'd Filipino Immigrant

It was the first day of school in Washington, DC and a new student name
Dagohoy, the son of a Filipino immigrant, entered the fourth grade.

The teacher began, "Let's review some American history, class. Who said
'Give me liberty or give me death?” She saw a sea of blank faces,
except for Dagohoy's who had his hand up, "Patrick Henry, 1775." "Very
good," said the teacher.

"Who said 'Government of the people, by the people, and for the people
shall not perish from the earth'"? Again, no response except from
Dagohoy: "Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, 1863," he said.

The teacher snaps at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed, Dagohoy
who is new to our country knows more about our history than you do."

She hears a loud whisper from the back: "Screw the Filipinos." "Who
said that?" she demanded. Dagohoy put his hand up. "General John Pershing,
Manila, 1896."

At that point, Jack, another student says, "I'm going to puke."

The teacher glares and asks, "All right! Now who said that?" Again
Dagohoy answers, "George Bush, Sr to the Japanese Prime Minister during the
state dinner, Tokyo, 1991."

Now furious another student yells, "Oh yeah? Suck this!!" Dagohoy jumps
out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher at the top
of his voice, "Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, the Oval Office, 1997!!"

Someone shouts, "You little shit if you say anything else, I'll kill
you." Dagohoy yells, "Congressman Gary Condit to Chandra Levy,
Washington, D.C., 2001!"

The teacher faints. "I'm outta here!" mutters one student as he sidles
to the door. "President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Baguio City, December
30, 2002!!" Dagohoy responds.

As the class gathers around her on the floor, someone says, "Oh shit,
now we're really in big trouble!" "Saddam Hussein, on the Iraq invasion,
Baghdad, May 2003!" Dagohoy bellowed.

"Now, I really have to run," Jack mutters, heading for the exit,
"Gloria Macapagal Arroyo again, Pampanga, October 4, 2003!!!" Dagohoy shouts
triumphantly jumping with glee.

Struggle a Little - Then Fly!

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, that he brought home.
One day a small opening appeared he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours. It struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract. Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
The man acted with well-intentioned kindness but he didn't understand the consequences. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening, were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and we could never fly
So the next time you are faced with an obstacle,
a challenge, or a problem, remember the butterfly.
Struggle a little - then fly!