Al hanisim

I was working this morning, driving to an on-call visit and listening to the radio. The radio program came to an end and the station began to broadcast a Sunday church service. This is usually my cue to change the station, but today I thought I'd listen. The service being broadcast was from a Unitarian Universalist church. I'm not sure why I decided to listen - perhaps because I recently lost a patient who identified as UU. I thought of him this morning when the service came on and I didn't change the channel.

At the beginning of the service, the service leader mentioned that it was Chanukah on the Jewish calendar. One of the song selections was "Light One Candle" and the congregation's educator would speak about Chanukah. That got my attention - what would she say?

She spoke about Chanukah as a holiday of light. She went on to equate the Chanukah lights to the use of light in many other religious traditions. I understood her connections - the UU religion is marked by theological diversity. I don't know who was sitting in the congregation (or listening on the radio) or their specific faith backgrounds, but listening to her talk they could link their beliefs to the message she was giving.

My problem came a little earlier in her talk. She spoke of the day's worth of oil that lasted eight days as she explained the holiday. She then went on to say, "but the oil is unimportant." Unimportant?!?! If you're focusing on light, how can that which caused the light be unimportant to the story?

Really, however, I had a bigger problem with her talk. Lights are important to Chanukah; one of the holiday's names is "Festival of Lights" ("chag urim" in Hebrew.) Lights are lovely. Lighting up the darkness on these cold winter nights is a wonderful thing. And the Chanukah lights glow even more brightly because they are lit in the days of a waning moon into the new moon. But for me Chanukah is not about lights - it's about miracles.

The prayers when we say the daily Amidah and later when we light the Chanukah menorah focus on the nisim, the miracles that God performed for our ancestors at this season. Last week, as I was preparing the reflection for our hospice Interdisciplinary Team Meeting, I was thinking about Chanukah. And I was thinking about miracles.

I believe that our lives are filled with miracles. There are the "everyday miracles" (as the Reform siddur labels the daily blessings) - the miracles of breath, of sight, of awareness, of freedom, of being created in the ways we are created. There are the miracles of love, and connection, and relationship.

There are the miracles I see in hospice work. I've viewed times when families find healing in the face of death. I've seen someone arrive at "just the right time" or somehow say exactly the right words. I've walked onto a nursing home unit and been greeted with "Thank God you are here." (And often when my presence was not on my planned weekly schedule. What was it that brought me to this place at this precise time?) 

When it comes to miracles, I know we can't stop the angel of death from coming; all of us will meet him one day. But we can push back, and there are times when we can delay his arrival.

Part of my job is to be present, to watch for the miracles, and to name them. Chanukah reminds me that miracles do exist. They existed for our ancestors at this season, and they exist for us in these days.

Chag urim sama'ach! May our days be filled with light and may we be open to and aware of the miracles that daily fill our lives.