Despite the fact that miracles are only known for massive situations, the play Coming Home by Athol Fugard suggests that miracles don’t have to come in great sizes. If there is one thing that this play reveals about miracles is that the size of a miracle can be small. Although when one usually thinks of a miracle they would think of something only Jesus could do but in this play miracles are considered to be something so common that some wouldn’t even consider them to be miracles.
In the play a man named Oupa believed that anything could be a miracle even a seed. “Miracles Veronica, all my seeds are miracles… When you plant them they will one day turn into big flat white boer pumpkins.”(7) Oupa believed that miracles could happen every day, even in ones back yard. Veronica thought that Oupa was just being silly until she had her child Mannetjie. she saw Mannetjie as a seed inside her that grew up into a big boy and that he will grow up to be a big man.(8) Soon this “big man” had his own miracles. Mannetjie had words as miracles instead of seeds but when Oupa told him that words aren’t seeds Mannetjie replied“They are my seeds… Yes… they are also miracles. They will also grow.”(101) Mannetjie also thought that miracles could be something that not only Jesus could do. His miracles are used everyday they are common words (101). Although Mannetjie was a great student, he couldn’t afford to go to high school until a miracle happened Alfred found money in Oupa’s house and so Mannetjie can go to school when he gets older (92). It was surely a miracle, but that wasn’t the only lucky miracle of the play. When the frost one came one year all of the plants in the akker had died, but it turns out that one small little plant still survived out of all of the others (100). During the late frost Oupa was “slowly going into the darkness, when [he heard] it: ‘Work harder… work harder… work harder…!”(98) When Oupa heard the bird saying ‘work harder’ he knew spring was coming, and because of it he lived to see another day.
Another important miracle is when Veronica met Manfred and she got a job in Cape Town and was able to support herself (57). Another spectacular miracle is the one where Alfred actually accepts to marry Veronica. The reason why this is a miracle is because Alfred is doing it from the goodness of his heart, because there was no personal gain for him. He is doing it so if Veronica dies, Mannetjie won’t be taken by child welfare. In fact most of the miracles of the play have to do with life or death. (68) The most touching and important miracle in the play was the idea that Veronica and Mannetjie were able to see the “ghost” of Oupa in their home although he was dead. Veronica even said that there were “ghosts waiting for [her]”(16). This family was so close death couldn’t even split them apart and because of their miracles they are able to see each other after death and even just live another day. Many things can be recognized as luck but not all no matter how large or small could be mistaken for miracles.