A Personal Miracles Journey by Terrence J. Hatch, Karen Delaporte - HTML preview

CHAPTER 25

Miracle in a cornfield

A week before labor day in 2016 our son Justin and his wife Paige were visiting from Seattle. I took Monday off work early to spend time with them, and we went mini-putting at Volcano Falls in Rockford. As we finished, a thunderstorm was rolling in, and Brenda received a text from our neighbors Michelle and Ryland saying they needed help.

They were on their way back from Florida with their son when they wound up stranded in a cornfield about fifty miles south of us. So we headed out to rescue them.

After driving through a torrential downpour we arrived at their location on Bollman Road, near Dixon Illinois. It was a narrow gravel road with tall corn and deep mud on both shoulders, and it was obvious that cars had driven through the mud to get past their stalled vehicle.

The story goes that they made good time on highway 16 until they came to a roadblock. There a cop directed them onto this narrow gravel road where traffic was barely moving. Soon they began to hear a grinding noise, but they kept moving, until suddenly the motor died.

When they got out they saw that one end of the gas tank had fallen and dragged on the gravel until it had a hole in it that caused all the gas in their recently filled tank to leak out, killing the engine. They were thankful that the cop took them off the highway when he did, since it seemed that the gas tank would have exploded if it had fallen and dragged on the pavement at sixty miles per hour. This genuinely seemed to be a miracle of divine intervention. But it leaves one question unanswered. Was the cop an angel?

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Amazing God

When Brenda and I recall these accounts, we experience a deep sense of gratitude as we recall times when God stepped in and changed the course of our lives. We know that other Christians also have testimonies like these because we have heard many over the years. Sometimes I wonder if too many take prayer for granted, never record answers in a journal, and soon forget little miracles.

So then what is the secret to seeing God work?

Probably most Christians would agree there is nothing we can do to force God to do anything. Our part is to simply surrender deeply to God’s will and place problems in his hands, praying hard when situations demand it, asking others to pray hard, and to sometimes be willing to take steps of faith based only on faith, rather than sight.

I have to wonder, if we never stepped off a faith cliff would we ever know if God could catch us? The bottom line is that when an average human being chooses to trust deeply that the God who loves them can control every molecule, atom, and quark in the universe, then one can look for and expect little miracles! •

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The End

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Revision Date September 12, 2023

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