“How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!” – Job 26:2
In April 2018, Terry Burleson, of Edmond Oklahoma, went turkey hunting with some friends. As they drove down the road, a wall of flames was racing toward them. “Get us out of here!” Terry screamed.
Soon the tornado-like wildfire had surrounded the men. Their cellphones went dead.
The smoke became thick and Terry’s friends jumped out of the truck, leaving Terry alone.
“I’d never needed God as I did now. But I never felt as if I’d done anything to deserve his help or his love” Terry remembered.
“I was on my own here. Through the smoke, the flames biting me every step of the way, I made it to the top of a canyon. Momentarily I was above the fire. To the west, maybe a quarter-mile away, I saw a flat area the fire hadn’t reached, a place clear of cedars. I half-ran, half-staggered there, then collapsed on the ground.”
“God, please let me live,” I cried out in desperation. It was the first prayer I’d said in years.
Terry ran throughout the night. The next morning, a search helicopter spotted him and he was rescued.
Terry concludes: “A helicopter took me to the burn unit in Oklahoma City. As it lifted off, I took one last look at the charred landscape below. Total devastation. More than 280,000 acres would burn. But in the blackness I saw hope, the promise of a new day dawning, new growth. I was alive because the fire had miraculously changed direction. And so had I.”
Our God sees our tears, hears our sobs and draws close to the powerless. Today in prayer, praise Jesus that He is a God of compassion.
“The dew of compassion is a tear.” – Lord Byron
God’s Word: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” – Romans 5:6
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