Miracles…

Miracles...12-14-25

I have known the man in this photo for over 44 years. 43 of those years, we have been together. He told me once a couple of years ago that he didn't have a story. You see, I had given my testimony at church. He had also heard Ben Fuller's and Austin French's testimonies as well. He talked about his story not being one of struggle, addictions, extreme poverty, or abuse. Although his mother and father didn't go to church, his father knew the Bible and is waiting in Heaven for us to join him.

He and I were watching Dr. Marc Siegel talk about his book, Miracles Among Us, and discussed God's miracles. Later, he told me a story of a miracle that he had experienced. I will tell that in a paragraphs below. But first...

My husband spent his early pre-adolescent and adolescent years with his dad on the local volunteer fire department. As early as 12, he was assisting. He later trained in Camden on weekends with the volunteers. His dream was always to be a fireman. When he retired after his almost 29 years from a professional department in our state's largest city, I put together books of his certificates, photos, over a dozen journals of his calls, and several photo collages like the ones in the image above for his retirement celebration. What I couldn't put together were the horrific images that will forever live in his mind's eye.

You see, he has told me over and over again that he wishes his "mind could forget what his eyes have seen". During his 29 years there, he was shot at. One bullet hit the fire truck below the door where he was driving. He rolled up on active homocides, shootings, and stabbings. He held the lifeless body of babies, children, and adults. He held the hands of those who would slip into eternity. He assisted the good Lord as the breath was pumped back into lifeless bodies, and the heart was pounded into beats again. He searched burning homes while screams and calls for help echo through the smoke. Some were found in time, others were not. He worked car crashes so horrific body parts were hard to recognize. He even worked plane crashes where burned bodies cried out and plane passengers became the heroes carrying their friends and others to safety. All these things and more fill his head and heart.

When I told him I wanted to write about the young girl, he said the words I have heard him say so many times over the past 40 years. He said, “Don’t make me a hero. My whole team was there. I was just doing my job.” As a Captain, he called them “his team”, “his guys”. He cared for them, looked out for them, and they were also his family.

So to the miracle. They rolled up on a fire. The house was fully engulfed. He was assisting another company and was not the one in charge. Standard procedure is for second company on the scene to do search and rescue. The first Engine was fighting the fire. There had been no reports of anyone in the home. It was 3:00 or 4:00 am, and no one was up and around. He and his team went in and began to search through the smoke and flames. The training is rigorous and room by room search protocol is important. As they searched, they came upon a room with the door closed. As he took ahold of that door and opened, the room was barely touched by the raging fire that was consuming the rest of the home. There was almost no smoke and no fire. Laying on the bed was a young girl about 5 or 6, maybe 7. She was sleeping peacefully. As he picked her up, she awakened and was frightened. He scooped her unharmed body and carried her out. Her room, untouched by flames, and her body, sleeping peacefully untouched by smoke and the horror that was encompassing her home. That, my husband recalls, was an example of miracles he has seen and witnessed. I immediately asked where her parents were. No idea. No one calling her name. No one beating down doors to get to her. No one home, but her.

But she was not alone. She was being covered by God's hands until the human hands that my God sent could lift her to safety. That is my husband's story. He is, as many are, God's physical hands that carry others to safety, provide medical care, hold hands while some go on to the Lord, and simply listen to God's calling and let Him lead them. God's miracles are sometimes assisted by human hands. That will always be my husband's story and hundreds of others.