The following story comes from an AP News report, back in 2004:
On October 2, 2004, 17-year-old Laura Hatch left a party in a Seattle suburb, and that was the last time she was seen for more than a week. No one knew why she didn't return home later that night. No one knew she'd lost control of her car and careened down a steep forested ravine.
Laura's parents contacted the police, and a search began. When a week went by without any leads, the Hatches organized a search team of 200 volunteers including members of Creekside Covenant Church in Redmond, Washington where the family attends.
When the extensive search failed to produce any results, family members began to assume the worst. "We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts," Laura's mother told the media.
Sha Nohr's daughter was one of Laura's friends. Norh, a Creekside Covenant Church member, told her distraught daughter that all they could do was pray. But Nohr had trouble sleeping that night. She kept having a recurring dream of a wooded area and heard the message, ''Keep going, keep going.'' The following morning, Sunday October 10, Nohr and her daughter drove to the area where the crash occurred, praying along the way.
''I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us,''' Nohr told the Seattle Times.
Nohr said something drew her to stop and clamber over a concrete barrier and more than 100 feet down a steep, densely vegetated embankment where she barely managed to discern the crumpled 1996 Toyota Camry. Nohr discovered Laura in the backseat, conscious, but seriously injured.
When the paramedics arrived, Laura was taken to Harborview Medical Center where she was treated for severe dehydration, a blood clot in her brain, broken ribs, a broken leg and facial lacerations. Amazingly, she had not had anything to eat or drink for eight days.
The skeptic in me wants to know, “Was this girl really saved by a dream, or was it just luck?” And the only answer I can give to that is, “Why not?” We get so busy telling God what he can and can’t do. But I don’t think we’re exactly in a position to dictate God’s limitation. Perhaps the first rule that we need to learn and relearn is that God is God and we…aren’t.
Today we’re going to read a story in Acts where God decides he’s going to save somebody without consulting anyone else. And thanks be to God that he does make this unprecedented and unforeseen move. Without it, you and I would not be sitting where we are today. You and I would not have been granted the wonderful privilege of being called his sons and daughters. And it’s all because God had bigger dreams for his Kingdom than anyone could possibly imagine.
On October 2, 2004, 17-year-old Laura Hatch left a party in a Seattle suburb, and that was the last time she was seen for more than a week. No one knew why she didn't return home later that night. No one knew she'd lost control of her car and careened down a steep forested ravine.
Laura's parents contacted the police, and a search began. When a week went by without any leads, the Hatches organized a search team of 200 volunteers including members of Creekside Covenant Church in Redmond, Washington where the family attends.
When the extensive search failed to produce any results, family members began to assume the worst. "We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts," Laura's mother told the media.
Sha Nohr's daughter was one of Laura's friends. Norh, a Creekside Covenant Church member, told her distraught daughter that all they could do was pray. But Nohr had trouble sleeping that night. She kept having a recurring dream of a wooded area and heard the message, ''Keep going, keep going.'' The following morning, Sunday October 10, Nohr and her daughter drove to the area where the crash occurred, praying along the way.
''I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us,''' Nohr told the Seattle Times.
Nohr said something drew her to stop and clamber over a concrete barrier and more than 100 feet down a steep, densely vegetated embankment where she barely managed to discern the crumpled 1996 Toyota Camry. Nohr discovered Laura in the backseat, conscious, but seriously injured.
When the paramedics arrived, Laura was taken to Harborview Medical Center where she was treated for severe dehydration, a blood clot in her brain, broken ribs, a broken leg and facial lacerations. Amazingly, she had not had anything to eat or drink for eight days.
The skeptic in me wants to know, “Was this girl really saved by a dream, or was it just luck?” And the only answer I can give to that is, “Why not?” We get so busy telling God what he can and can’t do. But I don’t think we’re exactly in a position to dictate God’s limitation. Perhaps the first rule that we need to learn and relearn is that God is God and we…aren’t.
Today we’re going to read a story in Acts where God decides he’s going to save somebody without consulting anyone else. And thanks be to God that he does make this unprecedented and unforeseen move. Without it, you and I would not be sitting where we are today. You and I would not have been granted the wonderful privilege of being called his sons and daughters. And it’s all because God had bigger dreams for his Kingdom than anyone could possibly imagine.