Cold, foreboding cerulean-grey clouds lowered in the sky, and I was wracked with pain and loneliness. Surely there was little of worth in this life and I longed daily for a miracle to help me through it. Even more, I longed for release so that, hopefully, I might achieve peace and solace in Heaven. Therefore, I beseeched God, in prayer, to provide me with a miracle to show His beneficence and compassion.

To my joy, the leaden clouds quickly parted just overhead, and in the flash of sunlight I knew I was seeing the face of God. And God said," Do you think I have forsaken you? Do you think that miracles are created to help you escape your world for "Heaven"? No: I have already given you miracles to enrich your life on Earth."

"God," I said, " I do not understand what you mean!"

And then God suddenly re-appeared as a tiger, massive in size, and said, "I gave you the big cats, to revel in their fleetness of foot and lithe beauty." I blinked and now God appeared as a great coral-colored parrot: "And I gave you tropical parrots, for their exquisite beauty, cleverness, and playfulness." I nodded, and then saw that God had become a stately Elephant, saying, "I gave you the elephants and the great apes and the dolphins to share their intelligence, kinship to Homo sapiens, and a sense of family. And swans for grace, ducks for tranquility, rabbits for gentleness, and dogs for friendship. And I covered your planet Earth with Birds of Paradise, peacocks, hummingbirds and quetzals, all garbed in exquisite finery." In rapid succession, the full panoply of God's creatures appeared, all in their pristine environments, with each bearing its own special gifts for Man, if Man was wise only enough to see their intrinsic worth.

Finally, God appeared as a Luzon bleeding-heart dove, with the patch of scarlet unmistakable over its breast. And God said," I suffer for you and all that you have lost and all of Paradise that I have given you that you have discarded as worthless or beneath you." "For you see," God said, "only Earth among all my planets and stars was given water, to allow the green grass and verdant forests to grow, and to quench the thirst of the magnificent creatures I created to befriend Man. But you felled all the trees, and covered the planet with asphalt, cement, and squalid cities, and have killed nearly all of my animals.

" This IS my Heaven," God said. You are already in Paradise. And the animals-they are what true miracles are made of . Save them before it is to late, for they are yours alone to destroy."

And then, the bleeding on His breast disappeared, as did the grey on its feathers, leaving the dove white as snow. But even though it flew off, the clouds remained parted and the sun continued to stream through. I now saw that Heaven was not above, whence came those life-giving rays ; rather, it was below, at my very feet, where the rays came to rest , at the miserable dirt that is Earth's floor, where they gave warmth and life to the small group of ordinary sparrows twittering there.