By Steve Stricker
Columnist

Thanksgiving to Christmas, 32 days, The Miracle Zone! Thanksgiving, pure holiday humbly thankful for what the Lord has given us. gathering with family or being alone and okay.  Then, paradigm shift of gears (manual transmission), 3rd, 4th into 5th and wild dash to wonderful, magical, miraculous, electricity in the air – Christmas.

One of my favorite TV shows on CBS from October 2, to June 19, 1964 – watched on our home black and white TV, was “The Twilight Zone” by Rod Serling.  Rather difficult to explain this show, other than Serling had to be eating weird mushrooms as he wrote each episode…I loved it as one could never fathom the bizarre outcome.

The same is true of the Miracle Zone, but you’ve got to believe in God – if you believe no explanation is necessary – if you don’t believe, no explanation is possible. A “miracle” has no secular, or medical explanation and no logical explanation. It cannot be made clear to a non-believer and even to a believer seems like eating those weird mushrooms – hard to explain to oneself! “Miracles are meant to prove God’s revelation and must be marked with a divine character that can be sensed, and even those ignorant will realize its authenticity.”  Such as at Lourdes, France or Oxford, Mississippi. 

If a non-believer and something awesome happens that can’t be explained, it could just be a coincidence – and it could be God trying to get their attention.  The “miracles” in my life are always accompanied by my prayers, be it surviving so many deadly situations in Vietnam, many incidents after, life saved days after saying a nine-day novena, engagement to a professed atheist broken (whew), finding something important lost after praying to St. Anthony (never lets me down), or my mechanic mentor, buddy the Holy Spirit allowing me to solve a difficult problem that I prayed to him for, or putting words in my mouth that didn’t come from my wee brain.

Christmas, the miraculous birth of our Lord, is above all other times of the year THE time of miracles and I always look for a BIG one! Looking hard now. Truthfully, I’m a basket case and look for a miracle every minute of every day – and get them!

There are many wonderful characters in the history of wonderful Oxford and I am not of one of them, just a weird guy devoted to God, misunderstood, lives alone with that cat, Jag who goes to sleep when I try to talk to him, extremely introverted, sailed through distance respected COVID19, okay being alone on Thanksgiving eating deviled eggs from Kroger, brief contact with my church friends at daily Mass, little connection with my biological family because I am not going to travel due to physical issues, totally uncomfortable in groups requiring small talk result of perhaps pulling way into myself returning from Vietnam, working with way too many shallow people interested in only themselves, being retired, don’t “have” to do anything and secure enough with who I am to not care.

And after wearing a coat and tie for over 21 years every day, I work at dressing down – T-shirt, jeans, light Ole Miss windbreaker. Result – Miracle Zone – my friends are my very dear true friends along with my oldest son Stephen, my cat Jag, who accept me for who I am and are the most important people in my life and are THE miracle in my life!

Steve Stricker received his Ph.D. in Counselor Education from Ole Miss.  He can be reached at, sstricker@olemiss.edu.