I believe most people will get to witness one big miracle in their lifetime. Something so incredible, it leaves you forever changed. That miracle happened to me on April 23, 1959, in North Hollywood, California, an ordinary Thursday. I was 19. The mo

I stood in front of the medicine cabinet, staring at a bottle of pills that I had taken down from one of the top shelves. My gaze ranged over the translucent orange plastic, the controlled substance warning on the label, the childproof white cap that

My husband, Mick, winced in pain as I rinsed the soap out of his eyes. “Sorry,” I said. He tried to say something but stuttered, unable to get the words out. He finally gave up and just sighed, frustrated. Mick had Alzheimer’s disease. He’d lost so m

The phone rang late one night. It was my brother Kerry. “Joe, Sammy’s plane was shot down during the air strike,” he said. Sammy, our mutual friend, was a lieutenant colonel and fighter pilot with the Kuwait Air Force. Kerry quickly filled me in on t

KRISTEN: I’d just drifted off to sleep when a face appeared before me. Handsome, with tan skin, dark hair, bushy eyebrows, light blue eyes and a kind smile… I woke with a start. Why am I dreaming about Kyle? I thought. I don’t even know him. I had se

It was an ordinary Bible, worn at the edges, with a plain cover. On the front, embossed in gold lettering, was my brother’s name: LANGDON HORN. It was the Bible he’d taken with him to rehab. The Bible he’d relied on to get clean and sober. Then it di

The Watts Towers of Los Angeles are 17 soaring structures meticulously erected by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia from 1921 to 1954, using nothing more than scrap metal, mortar, glass, ceramics and hand tools. In 1959, the city tried to topple them, ar

For this final issue of Mysterious Ways magazine, I asked the staff to reprint our feature on the Watts Towers in Los Angeles (page 11). I learned about the fascinating structures in college while reading The Ascent of Man by science writer Jacob Bro

I hadn’t seen my brother in 15 years. Bob lived in Indiana; I lived in Oklahoma. Both of us busy with life. We called each other on birthdays, holidays and “bad weather” days. He was always excited to update me on his family and garden. I planned to

Since the days of Abraham, people have turned to their dreams for guidance—and for good reason. Many theologians believe dreams are one of God’s primary ways of getting our attention. So could God be trying to tell you something while you are sleepin

“You should shred those papers.” My husband, Mike, gestured to a pile of documents I’d just tossed into the trash can. “It’s always a good precaution.” I felt silly pulling out the discarded papers. Who would be interested in digging through our garb

Every day I live in pain. Mostly it’s my left arm. The limb I almost lost in a freak accident a few years ago. Now my brain erroneously senses sharp pain there at every moment. I’m numb in several fingers. I can’t grip things with my thumb. I used to

I almost didn’t see her. I was heading into Pittsburgh, across the bridge over the Allegheny River, late for work, and she was little more than a shadow by the seven-foot fence that lined the edge. But I got a feeling that I’d missed something. I tap

In 1910, Howard Thurman’s mother took him to observe Halley’s Comet. The future theologian, civil rights leader, mystic, author and educator, then 11 years old, asked what would happen if the comet fell to earth. “Nothing will happen to us, Howard,”

Marram grass, or Ammophila arenaria, lives in harsh conditions, but you’d never know it looking at this cross section under a microscope. Native to the U.K., the prickly grass grows in sand dunes and helps prevent erosion—its long roots trap blown sa

Almost 70 years later, Marilyn Mitchell still struggles to find the words for what happened that night. “I don’t know that I’ve ever recovered from it,” she says. “It was just very traumatic.” “Something like that you don’t for-get,” says Frances Mag

Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is home to a stair-case with a mysterious origin. The chapel, now a museum, was constructed in 1878 for a Catholic girls school. When the structure was completed, there was no way to reach the choir loft. The n

Hiking has never been  my passion. I was never so aware of that fact as I was this early August morning, trudging through the foothills in the Arizona heat. I’ll never make it up this slope, Lord, I thought to myself. I didn’t have the breath to pray

As 1967 began, artist Ben Stahl was exultant. The previous fall, he had opened the Sarasota Museum of the Cross in his adopted Florida hometown. It featured 15 of Stahl’s large canvases depicting the stations of the cross and Jesus’ Resurrection. As

Dad had what you’d call a big personality. Larger than life. He could charm a whole room in minutes. Holding my newborn son in my arms, I wished, not for the first time, that the two of them could have met. We’d named the baby Stone, which was my mai

“Go mow that lawn!” I sat straight up in my bed. The command that woke me that summer morning was surely from God. The lawn in question had come up in conversation with a man I’d met the night before. Louis was a missionary, living on very little lik

The exterior of St. Benedict Catholic Church, nestled on a hillside in South Kona, Hawaii, is plain and white. Open the doors, however, and you’ll see a wash of color that rivals the tropical surroundings. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky

For years I had wanted to take a trip to Bannack, a ghost town in southwestern Montana that was booming back in the 1860s, the days of the Gold Rush. In 1864, Bannack was the first territorial capital of Montana, until the capital was moved to Virgin

Julian of Norwich (1342–after 1416) was a medieval mystic and recluse in the English city of Norwich. At the age of 30, she fell gravely ill. Believing Julian wasn’t long for this world, a priest administered last rites at her bedside. That’s when th

Last February, I took a day off to check out the new apartment I’d rented in New York City. I’d been working from home for two years and was about to return to an actual office. Luckily, I’d found the perfect apartment, just a 15-minute walk from wor

On a weekday afternoon some years ago, I was sitting alone in my small one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s west side when someone buzzed me from downstairs. As I wasn’t expecting a visitor, I assumed it was the postman seeking admission to the build