Life is a miracle!
This week is my birthday and, even though life goes on with its daily rhythm, meetings, to‑dos, family, and commitments, I felt the need to pause for a moment and look back on the road I’ve traveled. I found myself thanking God… for everything… the easy days and the ones that weren’t so easy… for the joy, the anguish, the laughter and the tears. Why? Because in every one of these moments, God made Himself known to me.
Life is a miracle, and I rediscover it with every breath I take, every step I walk, and every healed scar. I’m the mother of three wonderful children. I’m a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and the co-founder of Build the Faith. Still, more than all of that, I’m a woman who, in the deep pain of losing her daughter, discovered that at the cross there wasn’t only suffering, there was God, waiting for me with open arms.
Christy, my daughter, used to say that the happiest day in life would be “the day we return to God’s arms,” and those words resonate with me more now than ever. Her departure at such a young age changed me forever. It made me realize something we so often forget; that life is fragile, the present is a gift, heaven is real and to exist is a miracle.
Life is a miracle that reveals itself in the simplest things: in the warmth of a morning coffee, in the steps we take without pain, in the song of a bird at dawn, or in that deep breath that reminds us we are alive. Each of these moments is a gift that will never come again and when we live them with awareness, we discover that the ordinary is full of the extraordinary.
We are experts at planning, at living trapped between the past that is already gone and cannot be changed, and the future that has yet to arrive. Yet we allow the present to slip through our fingers. With it, we lose daily opportunities to love, to forgive, to embrace, and to look someone in the eyes and say, “I love you.”
Jesus Himself left us a teaching that gains meaning in this invitation to live today to the fullest: Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)
Today, I invite you to pause and look around you, to recognize the miracle that is simply existing… to breathe, to feel, to live, and even to suffer… because even in suffering, God makes Himself present. I have felt His presence in the simplest gestures: a hug that arrived exactly when I needed it most, a smile that recharged my heart without saying a word, an unexpected message whose words seemed to have been written by the Spirit Himself. Nothing is a coincidence when you live with the eyes of faith.
To give thanks is, in itself, an act of faith. It is to recognize that life does not belong to us, that every second has been given to us as a gift. When we give thanks, we are affirming that life—even with its sorrows—is a constant miracle.
Those who know me, know that I’m a perfectionist, a planner, an impatient person who is sometimes so obsessed with details that I forget to admire the blessings God gives me each day. Even so, God, in His infinite love, has known how to use both my strengths and my limitations for His glory. He gathered all my energy and redirected it to serve Build the Faith. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect—only willing—and, when we place who we are in His hands, even our wounds can heal others.
Today I breathe, love, forgive, and keep moving forward because I deeply believe that simply being alive is already a miracle; and, if life itself is a miracle, then everything it contains—love, pain, service, and waiting—can also become a path to holiness. May we never stop being amazed. Life truly is a miracle!
Jesus, I Trust in You.
Monica Lacouture was born and raised in Colombia, South America. She moved to the United States in 1995, where she and her husband, Fernando, married and were blessed with three children—Daniel, David, and Christina, whose unwavering faith became the inspiration behind Build the Faith.
Although raised Catholic and educated in parochial schools, Monica describes much of her adult life as that of a “lukewarm” Catholic. That changed unexpectedly in late 2012 when she attended a retreat and had a profound personal encounter with Jesus. She had no idea at the time how much she would come to rely on this renewed faith just three months later, when her daughter Christina was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Throughout Christina’s battle, Monica’s faith deepened, sustained by her daughter’s extraordinary trust in Jesus. In 2016, inspired by Christina’s unwavering faith, Monica and Fernando founded Build the Faith. As President of the organization, Monica feels blessed to carry forward Christina’s legacy, spreading faith and hope to others.
