The tree and me:
A miracle is defined as a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.
Some time ago I was sharing with some friends about the time I was cutting firewood in a rain storm with my uncle -in-law and my brother -in-law. It was in the winter of 1961. We were out of wood for the fireplace and uncle Truby had plenty of trees on his property in Truckee California. My brother-in law, Jimmy, agreed to drive with me from Sacramento to uncle Truby's place and help me cut some wood. When we arrived uncle Truby was more than willing to give us a hand.
It was pouring down rain but the three of us were all used to working outside and were not deterred at all by the weather. We loaded our chain saws, sledge hammers, wedges and mall into Uncle Truby's old Desoto four door sedan and struck out to find some dead standing trees. After falling a couple of smaller trees we came across one that was about four feet diameter.
After deciding where we wanted the tree to fall I grabbed my chain saw and started cutting. When I had cut the tree about two thirds of the way through it split at the stump and rested on the other third of itself about fifteen feet up from the stump. I cut from the other side to where I estimated the tree was cut nearly all the way through but it refused to fall.
Picking up my sledge hammer I tapped a wedge into the saw cut. I told Uncle Truby and Jimmy to get behind a nearby tree for safety. I remember swinging the sledge hammer toward the wedge but I don't remember hitting it. All went dark.
After I was released from the hospital seven days later, Jimmy and Uncle Truby told me the details of the incident. They told me that when the sledge hammer struck the wedge the tree left the stump and struck me in the left side of my head. They said that I went flying through the air like a rag doll. When they got to where I had landed they found that was bleeding from my nose, my mouth, my eyes and my ears. They were beside themselves as how to help me so they hurriedly loaded me into the back seat of the car. Uncle Truby got the car stuck in the mud as he tried to get me back to the house. He sent Jimmy up to the house to get his wife who was able to drive the car up to the house.
Uncle Truby lived so far up in the mountains that there was no electricity or telephone service. They wrapped my in blankets and drove me about fifty miles to the Hospital Folsom California. The Doctors there examined my condition and said that they were not equipped to handle injuries as serious as mine. They put me in a ambulance and sent me to the Sutter Hospital in Sacramento.
I was examined by the Doctors at Sutter and they could not determine a treatment for my condition. Fortunately there was a Doctor that had flown in from the East Coast earlier that day to evaluate another patient who had been injured in an explosion. After examining me this Doctor said that it didn't look good. He said that if I lived through the night I would have a fifty-fifty chance of recovery. He also said that there was no way to know what my condition would be if I did recover. The Doctors expressed little hope for my recovery. Seven days later I regained consciousness and two days after that was released from the hospital.
The Doctor told me not to drive until the swelling in my head went down enough to allow my left eye to move. The fact that my left eye wouldn't move caused me to see double and I would not know which image I was seeing was the true image.
I learned later that I had suffered a mild concussion but in a few weeks I had completely recovered and have suffered no side effects from the incident.
I had not yet accepted Christ as my Savior when this incident took place in my life but I find it difficult to believe that God was not the reason for my survival.
- Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
2nd Timothy 1:9
