Miracle

Have you smiled lately? Have you noticed that smiles most often come to us unbidden and unheralded? Something happens and we smile. We see someone smiling and we smile, almost involuntarily. Smiles are infectious. Smiles are little everyday affirmations of life. Consider the state of the human condition without smiles.
 
A smile is a miracle. Literally.
 
In its origins the word miracle comes from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) smei (to smile, to laugh). PIE smei is related to Sanskrit smerah (smiling) and Greek meidan (to smile). From these beginnings we have the Latin smeiros and mirus (wonderful, amazing, astonishing), mirari (to wonder at, to marvel, to be astonished; also, to regard, to esteem), and miraculum (an object of wonder). In the Latin of the early Church, miraculum meant a marvellous divinely inspired event.
 
The Old English word miracle, from the 12th century, meaning a wondrous work of God, comes from the 11th century Old French miracle (miracle, story of a miracle, miracle play) which in turn is from Latin miraculum. Spanish milagro and Italian miracolo also come from Latin miraculum.
 
By the mid-13th century, the word miracle began to be used to mean any extraordinary or remarkable feat without any necessary reference to a deity.
 
In the 4th century translation of the Bible into Latin, the Greek words semeion (sign), teras (wonder), and dynamis (power) were translated respectively as the Latin words signum, prodigium, and virtus. However, when the Bible was translated from Greek to English during the Renaissance and Reformation, the word miracle was used for each of these three Greek words.
 
So, could we conclude by saying that a smile is not only a miracle, but also a sign of wonder and power? Smiles, like miracles, can change things.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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