Proof The Bible Is True

My last-minute Christmas shopping couldn’t wait another minute—even though it meant driving in the snow. Now all I had to do was find my way home.   There’d been big changes in my life recently. I’d moved back to my old hometown after a 40-year absence—and married my high school sweetheart. The town had grown in leaps and bounds since I’d last lived here, and driving was an adventure, snow or no snow.   I threw my packages in the trunk and brushed off my windshield. As I got behind the wheel, my friend Pam called. “I was out shopping,” [More]

“You’ve been approved!” There were no sweeter words our adoption case worker could have said to us that cold March day. For nearly a year, my husband, Femi, and I had been subject to interviews, training weekends, home studies, criminal checks and a whole lot of waiting in order to pass through the intensive process required by the Canadian government to adopt a child. The case worker wasn’t done talking, though. “The average wait for a baby could be two or three years, even more,” she said. “You might as well begin your biological family first.”   Read More: A [More]

When this letter from reader Valeria Olson arrived for us in the mail, we couldn’t wait to share it. With holiday shopping season just around the corner, it’s a perfect reminder that angels aren’t just with us on Christmas Day.   Valeria decided to spent the day at the mall with her daughter and granddaughters for a holiday shopping marathon. Eventually, they separated to pick out gifts for each other, planning to meet up later for lunch.   “Happy and satisfied with my arms full of gifts, I was idly window shopping when my cell rang,” Valeria wrote. “Spying a vacant bench [More]

A writer attending an out-of-town seminar is given reason to be thankful her luggage was lost.   Watch: Mysterious Ways: Close Call – Guideposts

Early on a Sunday morning, I was startled awake by vivid, disturbing images, settling into my consciousness as if I had seen them in reality. In my dream, I had seen inside the office of a U.S. Army first lieutenant—walls adorned with matted certificates and a few framed army medals, a wooden desk and an American flag standing at attention in the corner. What frightened me were the pages of reports that sat front and center on the desk, with the word “suicide” written prominently across them.   I immediately thought of my brother, Mike, a first lieutenant Green Beret [More]

The story wouldn’t leave my mind. I pulled my jacket tighter against the late-October breeze, hurrying from my office to the drugstore, where I intended to buy a card. Occasionally I glanced up into the clear blue sky for those shimmering wings.   It’s just a story, I thought. A parable about heaven in a book that a friend had put in my hands after my daughter’s funeral, four months earlier.   Kari was only 27 years old when she died in an ATV accident. She occupied my every waking thought. All it took was a simple “How are you?” [More]

The snow was coming down hard when I pulled into the carport beside our double-wide and took out my groceries. I couldn’t wait to get inside and warm up.   But just as I started for the front door, my arms full, the stray cat I’d found several months earlier jumped down out of nowhere and planted herself on the steps right in front of me. “Move, Kitty, these bags are heavy,” I said. “Scat!” But Kitty refused to budge.   Read More: A Heaven-Sent Watchkitty – Guideposts

My husband, Jerry, drove us to church Sunday morning. I stared out the window of our minivan, looking for a sign. Not a street sign—a sign from heaven.   I’d always believed that when God has a plan for you, he makes it known. But if that was true, all the signs pointed toward something I didn’t want to accept. I couldn’t even bring myself to glance at the backseat. Empty. No car seat. No baby.   Read More: Mysterious Ways: A Blessed Event – Guideposts

The small country cemetery was deserted that breezy fall day. I walked along the pine tree-lined perimeter, lost in thought. After my husband, Wally, died a year earlier, I didn’t know how I’d go on. I read every grief book, tended to the animals on my farm, went to mass three times a week, but I still glanced out the window every evening, expecting to see Wally’s pickup truck coming round the bend. I couldn’t imagine life without him. I certainly couldn’t imagine falling in love again.   Then I met George. I was in a grief counseling group, sitting [More]

“Have you asked God as she did to use you in a Mysterious Way, if not try it.” Admin   I had a busy day ahead—drive 40 minutes to the airport to pick up my youngest sister and my brother-in-law, flying in from Kansas City, and give them a grand tour of the new town my husband and I had moved to in Florida. Before I did anything, though, I picked up my copy of Mysterious Ways. Every morning I sit at the breakfast table with the magazine and read a few stories. It helps me focus on what’s important in [More]

The cozy two-bedroom apartment seemed to have my daughter’s name written all over it. It felt like home. Sunlight poured in through the large windows, the building was well-maintained, and there was a bus stop right on the corner so her girls could easily get to school. And the landlady, Benita, was so friendly.   “I love it,” Julie whispered to me. “Too bad I’ll never be approved.” Read More: Mysterious Ways: A Place for Julie – Guideposts

The wind gently combing through the rust-colored weeds, calm waves lapping at the hull of my yellow kay­ak. Peaceful, right? Wrong. I didn’t want to spend one more minute on this stinkin’ river out in the middle of nowhere.   I swatted another mos­quito. I was tired of muttering to the empty air, sick of complaining, sick of being alone. Sick of myself.   Ever since my wife, Mary, died, seven years earlier, I’d been search­ing for something I couldn’t quite de­scribe. I’d quit my job as a restaurant manager to hike the Appalachian Trail, more than 2,000 miles. Then I’d [More]

Shrieks of joy, the sounds of happy children, reverberated across Rhode Island’s Napatree Beach. Two little girls playing in the sand. But I was barely aware of any of it. I plodded along, oblivious of the crashing waves at high tide. Late afternoon.   I ran my fingers through my wind-tangled hair, as if to clear my head. I’d come to this isolated spit of land on my sailboat, a place to escape. My wife and I had recently separated, our marriage in shambles. I worried about the toll on our boys, just six and eight.   It seemed like [More]

The other parents in the hospital waiting room were glued to an episode of The Jerry Springer Show blasting from the TV. But I had no interest. All I could think about was my 14-year-old son, David, who was in the middle of open-heart surgery. In fact, a nurse had informed me that, at that very moment, he was undergoing the riskiest part of the procedure.   “Luise!” a voice suddenly boomed.   I looked to my left, then my right. Who was calling me? Most people didn’t even know my maiden name, Luise. Maybe it was the nurse again. She said [More]

October 30, 2012. high tide. Calm offshore winds. Clean six-foot waves. A beautiful morning to surf. I stood on the north jetty at the entrance to Humboldt Bay and gazed out at the ocean. Shore birds flew in formation, almost shimmering in the sunlight.   I loved being out here in nature, in touch with something greater than myself.   There were maybe 20 guys already in the water at Bunkers, where waves break on a sandbar just north of the jetty. I watched them for a while, gauging the temperament of the ocean before zooming in on the perfect [More]

Many years have passed, but I’ll never forget that day in 1976, when I pulled two ivory envelopes from my mailbox. One, the phone bill. The other, a letter from my old friend Buz, who was due to visit me and my husband Clint the following week. Bad news first, I thought, walking into the house.   I tore the phone bill open. The amount made me cringe. $138.37–about $600 in today’s dollars. Back then, we simply couldn’t afford that.   Read More: Miracle in the Mailbox – Guideposts

The ivory face of the gold watch stared up at me from my dresser. A vintage Omega Seamaster, the bracelet scratched and crystal scuffed with age. My grandparents had given it to Dad back in the sixties, before he joined the Navy.   I’d never seen him without it on his wrist, until the day the mainspring seized up and it stopped ticking. He never got around to repairing it. I wished he could see me wearing it tomorrow on my wedding day. But like the watch, he’d run out of time.   Buttoning up my shirt sleeves for the [More]

I turned the corner onto our street and braced myself. I had to talk rebuilding plans with our contractor, but just the thought of seeing that empty lot–where my family’s house had burned to the ground seven months earlier–made me feel sick.   That night still haunted me. Waking up to the blaring of smoke alarms. Bolting out of bed with my husband, Keith, and grabbing our two young daughters from their rooms. Huddling outside in our pajamas, shivering, before seeking refuge with a neighbor.   We lost everything but the clothes on our backs and a jumble of items [More]

Wayne George knows he had a close call, but says his survival had nothing to do with luck.   On Tuesday, George and his wife had spent the afternoon watching their granddaughter’s swim meet. Afterwards, he dropped off his wife at their home and he went out to run a quick errand.   He made it to Jefferson Road, less than a mile from his home, “I see a tree falling, a huge tree falling off to my right and it’s in a wooded area. I realize I can’t avoid it,” explains George.   Read More: Man thankful to be [More]

Darrell Ellwood wasn’t just any firefighter. He served with my department for 11 years and the City of Windsor for another 18, and had a reputation for being “the man with the plan,” always looking out for his brothers. He was the provincial firefighters association’s best advocate as a member of the provincial labor department’s firefighter health and safety committee.   He was a husband, and a father to three children. He was also one of my best friends. His death at age 50 from multiple myeloma, a cancer, shocked me. How could someone with such a profound influence be [More]

A few weeks ago, three children in Moreno Valley, California, released a trio of colorful, helium-filled Mylar balloons into the sky. Attached to each was a handwritten, heartbreaking letter.   “Hi Mom, I miss you,” one letter read. “I hope you come and visit me soon because I have questions to ask, like why you had to leave…”   Each of the letters carried a small expression of the children’s grief. Their mother, 42-year-old Renee Finney, had recently lost a two-year battle with cancer. She’d passed away five days before Mother’s Day.   The children, ages 16, 18 and 25, [More]

Hurricane Gloria was wreaking havoc on our neighborhood. Looking out my kitchen window, I could see the force of the violent winds rattling the windows of the ranch houses in our development and hurling branches and other debris down the street.   Just moments before, a massive tree had fallen from our neighbor’s property into our backyard. What other damage had been done? Had the cover on our pool torn away? Had the metal shed with all my gardening supplies been bowled over? I was anxious to get outside and see for myself.   Read Moree: Mysterious Ways: The Howl [More]

“Gary! We need you here right now!” The dispatcher’s voice on the phone jarred me awake. Rain and wind rattled the windows something fierce.   My bedroom seemed darker than normal. I searched for the clock on my nightstand, but couldn’t find it. The heck with it. I had to get to work. They wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t an emergency.   “I’m on my way,” I said, swinging my legs out of bed. “Be there in ten.”   I found my closet, grabbed a pair of work jeans, a shirt and my tool belt. I pushed my arm through a [More]

I walk leisurely up the steep, narrow, rugged path high above a roaring river. I’ve been here before. I feel sure of it. The stately evergreen trees and the water are familiar. J, my 60-pound Border collie, lopes along beside me, my trusted companion.   I stop to take a picture of the river, looking down over a sheer rock face. The water is a brilliant turquoise blue, except for the white of the rapids, crashing violently over jagged rocks.   J goes on ahead of me. I’m not worried. She’s well trained. Smart and obedient. I hear a scampering [More]

He was trapped under his tractor. Only God and Shannon knew where to find him.   Ted: Twenty-five years of tending our 80-acre farm. It didn’t seem possible. But I still got excited every morning to go out in the fields.   One fine June morning in 2004 I planned to mow a lot of hay. I dressed quickly, snapped my sheath knife onto my belt and tucked my ring rosary into my watch pocket.   Peggy: Breakfast was ready when Ted came into the kitchen. Pancakes with lots of butter and syrup. His favorite. Shannon crawled out from under the table [More]

Can a miracle come in the form of an old cookbook?   Doctors didn’t have much faith that 100-year-old Ruth Levy would get better. Complications from pneumonia made it unlikely she’d ever return home from the hospital.   That all changed when one of her relatives, David Vos, decided to pay her a visit. Before he left, he pulled a first-edition book off his mother’s shelf: Clémentine in the Kitchen, by Samuel Chamberlain. Something to read to Ruth in the hospital.   “I didn’t know the book,” David told The New York Times, “but it was about cooking, it looked old and [More]

Four hours on the road, crammed into an old Chevrolet with two antsy boys, a fussy two-year-old girl and one very pregnant cat named Midnight–I could use a break to stretch my legs. We all could. But try telling that to my husband, Ernie, behind the wheel.   “Midnight’s acting funny,” my son, Ken, yawned from the backseat. His brother, Jerry, stroked Midnight’s fur, trying to calm her down.   “She’s probably getting ready to have her kittens,” I said, glancing meaningfully at Ernie.   “No stops,” he said. “We’re almost there.”   Read More: Mysterious Ways: The Lifesaving Craving [More]