A Treasury of Miracles for Teens (10 page)

The man looked intently at Kody. His eyes were crystal blue, a color Kody had never seen before. “Yes, I know. I knew you
were lost so I sounded the foghorn. You were very close to the open water.”

“How’d you know …” Kody licked his lips. They were still freezing cold. “I mean, how could you see me?”

“You asked for help.” The man gave Kody a slight grin. “That’s my job.”

“Rescue worker, you mean?”

“You could say that.” The man shrugged. “I needed to keep you safe out there.”

As they were speaking, the weather cleared. Kody was still exhausted and needed to get home in case someone was worrying about
him back home. “I better get going.” He stood and shook the man’s hand. “Thanks again. You … you saved my life.”

As he was turning to leave, Kody remembered something. Normally the lake’s rescue station was closed down for the winter.
“Why were you here, anyway?”

“Doing research.” The man winked at him.

Kody nodded, satisfied with the answer. He thanked the man again and walked home. Not until he was safely inside his parents’
home did Kody
realize he had been gone for seven hours. His parents were home and just about to call the police when Kody walked in.

They were at his side the moment he was through the door. It took Kody ten minutes to explain the entire story.

“That’s impossible.” His father crossed his arms and shook his head. “The station closes down in the winter.”

“Maybe it was some other lakeside building,” his mother offered.

Kody shook his head. “No, Mom, I know the rescue station. I’ve been going down to that lake forever.” He sat on the nearest
chair. “I know it’s usually closed down by now, but this guy there really helped me. Said he was doing research or something.”

His parents’ eyebrows raised at the same time.

“The place has been closed down.” His father’s voice was gentle. “I went by there the other day. Closed for winter.”

Frustration welled up in Kody. “Listen, I’m not losing my mind! I can still taste the coffee. The guy saved my life.”

After a long night’s sleep, Kody awoke the next morning determined to find the man at the rescue station and thank him again
for saving his life. He dressed in his old blue parka and walked to the rescue building. As he approached the front door,
Kody grew confused. The station was locked tightly, a chain through it’s double doors. Its concrete-bunker design was lifeless
and imposing. Puzzled, Kody made his way to the back door, but found it nearly buried under a three-foot-high snowdrift. It
showed no signs of having been disturbed in weeks, if not months.

The image made no sense whatsoever. There had been no snow since the sudden storm the day before. The door should have shown
obvious signs of Kody’s tracks leading up and down the steps. Feeling more than a bit odd, Kody dug through the drift to the
door and found a sign: “Closed for winter October to April.”

Kody reminded himself to breathe. How could the station be closed? What had happened to his footprints leading up to the door?
For that matter, where were the man’s tracks? Kody studied the locked, snow-covered door again. How had the man gotten inside?
He stood motionless, going over the details of the day before. This was definitely the place he had come to. This was where
the man had poured him hot coffee and helped him off the lake. The only foghorn in the area was located here at the rescue
station.

Suddenly, Kody knew there was one other way to check on the man’s identity. The county sheriff’s department ran the rescue
station. Kody hurried home and placed a call to that office.

“No one’s had access to the rescue station since
it was closed down in the fall. It’s been completely vacant.”

Kody hung up, his hands trembling. Maybe someone at the university would know what was going on. He placed another call and
asked if anyone had been given permission to do research at the building.

“No.” The voice sounded bored on the other end. “The county doesn’t allow research at the rescue station during the off season.”

Kody hung up the phone and fell to his knees, weak with the realization. Then he remembered the reason he’d gone on the hike
in the first place—to search for direction. When it looked as though the storm might kill him, he’d begged God for direction
again—a different kind of direction.

A hint of understanding washed over Kody.

“Could it have been?” Chills poked at his spine. “Is it possible?”

In that moment he realized it must have been and that yes, it was possible. God had worked out a miracle to save his life.
And if God wanted his life saved, it must be so that he himself could go on to save the lives of others.

And that meant going to college to study medicine. Just like he used to dream of doing when he was younger.

Today Kody is at medical school, well on his way to becoming a doctor. And though he can’t prove it,
he’s convinced that the man who saved his life that terrible winter day was none other than an angel. An angel sent to show
him the way home … and the way to a future that God had planned for him all along.

T
ina Ewing had always been close to her father. When she was a little girl growing up in Boston, Paul Ewing would come home
from work and spend hours pretending to be the horse while Tina bounced on his back.

As Tina moved into middle school, the two continued to share a special bond. Tina became a talented soccer player and was
chosen for an advanced-level all-star team. The girls played in tournaments across the state and every weekend Tina’s father
would accompany her, cheering words of encouragement to Tina as she played her heart out.

When Tina made the decision to give up soccer during her sophomore year, it was her father who was most supportive. “You’ve
done your best, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of her head. “Maybe it’s time to try something else.”

Tina’s mother was an executive at a local bank
and she kept long hours. Her father was self-employed and could work his schedule around Tina’s activities. When she got involved
in volleyball and basketball that year, he was at every game. When Tina’s mother worked weekends, Tina and her father would
go sailing or roller-blading. Those were the afternoons when Tina’s father would tell her that God had plans for her life—great
plans.

“Never doubt for a minute how much God loves you.” He’d grin at her. “Get that part right and everything in life will fall
into place.”

That year, during an essay contest, Tina’s teacher asked her to name and describe her best friend. “My dad’s my best friend,”
she wrote. “He understands me better than anyone else.”

Tina was only eighteen when her father began losing weight and coughing. It took three months for a doctor to give the family
the diagnosis they were dreading. Tina’s father had lung cancer. Worse, it had spread to his liver. Two months later he was
hospitalized and called Tina to his bedside.

“Don’t blame … God for this, sweetheart.” He managed a smile, though he was breathless from the effort of talking. “God’s
calling me home, but your mother and I are at peace. It’s part of his plan, for whatever reason.”

Tina held back her tears, then and when he died two weeks later. It wasn’t until after his funeral service that she broke
down and wept. Her mother
found her in her room and sat on the bed beside her. “He’ll always be with you, baby. Always.”

But for months, Tina couldn’t shake the dark cloud his absence had left. There were times when she’d go to school and spend
the day in the library, missing every class. Calls to her mother did nothing to help.

“I can’t make myself think, Mom. I miss him so much.”

Her mother took time off from work to take Tina to counseling sessions, but nothing seemed to help. She lost weight and dark
circles appeared beneath her once-bright eyes.

“Your father would be heartbroken, dear,” her mother told her one day. “I’m praying for you. And somewhere I know your father
is praying, too.”

Her mother’s words rang in Tina’s head. It was true, of course. Prayer, divine intervention, God’s miraculous power was the
only way she would survive. But where was she supposed to start? How did she begin a conversation with God when he was the
very one who had let her father die?

They were thoughts Tina hated to have, but they were there all the same. And as the months passed, there was an emptiness
inside her that she could neither escape nor explain. She barely graduated from high school and spent the summer moping about
the house. Then, that fall, sometime near the anniversary of her father’s death, Tina and two of her friends, Diane and Lora,
decided to hike
along a lake that had been one of her father’s favorites.

“I’m not sure we should be doing this.” The hole in Tina’s heart felt bigger than the lake in front of them as she and the
others got out of the car and headed toward the water. Parts of the hike would be hilly, and Tina didn’t have the energy to
climb them. And what about the memories along the way? Every step of this hike would remind her of her father.

“Come on, Tina. It’s time.” Diane gently pulled Tina’s arm and led her toward the trail.

Tina closed her eyes.
God … give me the strength.
When she blinked them open, she felt a little more capable than before. “I know.” She inhaled slowly. “Now or never.”

The three friends headed toward the lake. For nearly thirty minutes, the threesome walked in silence, each lost in her own
thoughts. They rounded a corner and Tina remembered the time she and her father had stopped in that spot when she twisted
her ankle once.

“Can you make it, honey?” She could still hear her father’s voice, caring for her, encouraging he.

One after another the memories of her father bombarded her with an almost physical force. The three friends turned a corner
to approach the steepest hill of the climb. The path followed the hill straight up and then leveled off along a fifty-yard
plateau. At the top of the hill, a bench marked the
spot where Tina and her father had often sat and talked when they visited the lake. Tina swallowed hard and stared straight
ahead. She would have to take the hill by storm, facing every memory along the way and refusing to give in to her overwhelming
feelings of grief.

Then suddenly she saw someone on the hill high above her.

A tall man in jeans and a T-shirt stood on the plateau staring out at the lake. From her viewpoint, the man looked exactly
like her dead father. Tina gasped, but her friends didn’t seem to hear her. The trio continued up the hill. As they did, Tina
kept her eyes on the man, and suddenly she felt a burden being lifted from her shoulders. When they were just ten yards from
the man, he turned toward Tina and smiled the same warm and reassuring smile that had once belonged to Paul Ewing alone.

Tina’s friends still seemed oblivious to the man and continued past him without stopping. When Tina was only a few feet away
from him, she paused and stared into his eyes. He winked once, smiled again, and then slowly turned back toward the lake.

Although Tina did not believe that people could come back from the dead or that people became angels after death, at that
instant, she had no doubt that somehow this man was her father. She did not know how it could be possible, but there was no
way anyone could look so much like him and be anyone
else. She seemed to know, instinctively, that there was no need to question the man or engage in dialogue. A peaceful reassurance
washed over her. She smiled at the man one last time and nodded as she continued on her way. At the bottom of the hill, she
caught up with her friends and asked them to stop a moment.

“Did you see that man?” She could feel the way her eyes were shining. Something they hadn’t done since her father had died.
Finally, after months of grieving, she felt at peace with herself.

“What man?” Diane’s expression was blank.

“Yeah, who?” Lora tilted her head, her eyebrows lowered.

“You know who.” Tina cocked her head curiously. “That man, up on the top of the hill.” She pointed toward the hill, but the
man had vanished. “He was up there, near the bench.”

Diane looked at Lora and shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone, did you?”

“Not a person. We’ve been the only ones on the trail all day.”

“No, seriously, guys. Back there on the hill. That guy in the jeans. He looked just like my —”

Tina stopped short. Her friends would think she was crazy if she finished her sentence. Besides, if they hadn’t seen anyone,
then … Tina felt another wave of peace. There was no need to share the story of the man and her meeting with him.

“Never mind.” Tina began walking again. “must’ve been my imagination.”

Diane and Lora shrugged; Tina was thankful when they dropped the subject. Whoever the man was, he had given her a glimpse
of the father she so badly missed and the reassurance that she had desperately needed. She would keep the incident to herself
for a while and savor it. And regardless of what anyone else would say to doubt it, from that point on Tina was convinced
that an angel, somehow cloaked in the appearance of her father, had been there. Perhaps he would always be there, watching
over the daughter Paul Ewing had loved so much.

This notion was confirmed five years later when Tina was working in Los Angeles near the Federal Building. She went into town
for lunch and was returning back to work when she paused at the curb, waiting for the light to change.

Suddenly, there was a firm grasp of a hand on her shoulder. The hand pulled her away from the curb with a force so strong
it nearly knocked her to the ground. At the exact same instant, a city bus jumped the curb directly where Tina had been standing.
If she had remained standing there, she’d have been killed.

She turned at once to thank the person who had rescued her, but there was no one within fifty feet of
her. Again she felt an overwhelming sense of peace and reassurance.

“The Bible says God assigns his angels to watch over us,” Tina says now. “He did that for me when I was a teenager, devastated
by my father’s death. And he does it still.”