You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The word "miracle" gets thrown around a LOT in the media these days. Foxnews.com has a headline screaming the word "miracle" practically every week and sometimes more often. Sadly, CNN and other less insane media outlets frequently use the word as well.

Personally, I define a "miracle" as the occurrence of an event outside the scope of physical possibility. Something that requires supernatural intervention to occur. That may not be the use to which everyone puts it, but clearly when the religious use the word, they mean something that occurs through the supernatural method of divine intervention.

So, it was with the usual expectations that I read the story of the family who were rescued several days after getting lost in the wilderness while hunting for their Christmas tree.

(Please note: If you intend to call me overly-sensitive, hyper-critical, or pedantic about the use of the word "miracle", please stop reading now. I understand that the people below are expressing their relief by means familiar to them. Tough. By continuing, you agree not to get all in my face about this. Especially you, Marc.)

The helicopter pilot put the rescue in accurate and realistic perspective.

"Had he not been moving, we would not have seen him, because the tree line was very dense and he came climbing out of the culvert," helicopter pilot Steve Ward told CNN on Thursday. "We were just very lucky."

The paramedic involved was less accurate.

"The small window of opportunity we had to find them, it was nothing short of a miracle," paramedic David White, who was riding with Ward, told CNN on Thursday.

The hunt, involving dozens of volunteers, helicopters and snowmobiles went on for three days. The family wanted to be found and were active in their own rescue. How is their recovery a miracle? Perhaps unlikely, but requiring divine intervention?

Let's hear from the rescued father.

"When they turned around, man, I was just praising God and saying, 'Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord,' because I knew we had made it," he said.

Yes, I love it when the Lord scares the crap out of me by confronting me with the freezing death of my children for three days. Praise Jesus!

"I'm glad I'm home. Praise God," Dominguez told reporters after exiting a chopper at the search command post. "It was awful."

Asked how he survived, he replied, "Jesus Christ."

Because no one has ever survived lost in the wilderness by themselves. No Buddhist, Muslim or Jew has ever come out of such a situation alive.

Butte County Search and Rescue dispatcher Madde Watts said, "They had angels with them, for sure."

Oh, for sure. Unfortunately, Angels appear to be incredibly incompetent, apparently taking at least three days to alert searchers. You'd think they could just fly right up and signal the helicopter but, I know, they don't work that way.

They would have been better off with a Saint Bernard with a keg of cognac around his neck.