A Blessing for People Formed by Loss and Miracle

Music from the movie Encanto is the constant soundtrack of my household these days. It’s a movie that has a lot to offer as a starting point for important conversations, for families and for the church. What I’ve been coming back to, again and again, is this line: Ya son milagros. 

People who have seen the movie will connect with this on a little deeper level, knowing the story and the song, Dos Oruguitas. But even if you haven’t seen the movie, this phrase can be a blessing for you, and for you to offer to others.  

Part of the power of the blessing comes from the ambiguity of the translation into English. In Spanish, the phrase holds both of these possible meanings at the same time: there are already miracles; you are already miracles. In the English version of the song, translated not only for meaning but also for poetry and rhythm, the lyrics are: wonders surround you.

People who have experienced loss and miracle are formed, across the generations, by the experience itself and by the stories told about what happened and what it means. As Christians,  loss and miracle form the center of our story: the cross and the empty tomb. The stories and experiences we share, across great distances of culture, language, time and place, are formed by these events.

A shared event doesn’t mean we all have the same story, though, and making sense of loss and miracle is not a simple thing. It is human nature to look for ways to earn the miracle; to work for or pay back the miracle. When I hear ya son milagros, I hear a blessing that tells the story of God’s gift to all creation in Jesus Christ: a miracle that is …ya. Already. 

There are already miracles.
You are already miracles.
Wonders surround you.
Ya son milagros. 

The gift, the miracle, is already. It’s not earned or paid back. It is unconditional and for all. 

I have started blessing my kids before school in the morning with these words: “Ya son milagros.” I like that even when I’m looking at just one child’s eyes and putting the sign of the cross on one forehead at a time, the blessing is plural, connecting them to the Body of Christ and the wider “you.” And I love the way it invites them into the story of our faith: full of grace, full of God’s “already.” 

Bishop Anne Edison-Albright