Christmas Miracle!

Pam is a dear friend. She submitted the recipe from her Aunt Ruth for her 24 hour salad (Dec. 5th posting) I received the following e-mail and decided it must be posted. What a Christmas miracle!


December 12, 2007 - CHRISTMAS FIRE

For a few years now, I have attended a Bible Study with a group of gals I met when I visited Holy Cross Lutheran by our home. We originally met each other by meeting as a small study group, which started with Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life series. Since then, every other week we meet for Bible Study at one of the gal’s houses - not far from my home.

My wonderful husband knew that our Bible Study group was planning a Christmas celebration. We were supposed to meet this morning and enjoy a nice breakfast, cookie and gift exchange. So, last night Michael offered to bake some Monkey Bread for me to take.

After the bread had been baking for awhile, we noticed smoke coming from the oven; then flames. The flames continued to grow bigger and bigger! The smoke alarms started to go off everywhere! Thankfully, the fire was contained inside the oven. Michael grabbed the fire extinguisher and proceeded to put out the flames, as I dialed 911. Isaac was sitting on the couch, quiet. We were all in shock of what was happening. It all happened so fast! The smoke was so bad, I could not see Michael standing 8-10 feet in front of me. I threw open the sliding glass doors all the way and then opened several of our windows. The firemen came and said they could smell smoke clear out in the front yard.

It all could have been much worse. Today, I’m thinking of what could have happened and thanking God for protecting me and my family. As I sit back and think of different things that have happened over the last few weeks, I realize that the Lord put special people in my path BEFORE this fire even came about. I like to have plenty of homemade items for Christmas day. This year I have received gifts of cookies and breads from several different people, which I placed in our freezer to save for Christmas day. I even commented to Michael about how many wonderful edible goodies we were receiving this year!

I realized that we CAN survive without Christmas cookies. We CAN survive without Christmas breads. And, we CAN survive without an oven to cook our Christmas dinner. My realization continued……I CAN replace the oven (with the help of a little plastic thing called a Credit Card!), and I CAN replace the few items damaged by the Fire Extinguisher.
However, I CANNOT replace my husband, my son, or my special beloved pets. And, we CANNOT survive without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That’s what Christmas is all about. The other stuff is fun, but what really matters is………..we have Jesus in our hearts, and nothing - not even a fire, can destroy that!

What we DO have this holiday season and are grateful for is our lives……..our home………..our clothes……..our belongings……..our pets, and most importantly we have Jesus in our hearts! We are truly blessed!
Happy Holidays everyone!

Pam Ruflin

PS - Just arrived home from my Bible Study Christmas party. My friend, Jane (the gal’s house where we all meet every other Thursday for Study), GAVE me an electric oven. She said she was just keeping it “in case someone ever needed one. The only thing is….”, she said, “it’s black! I hope you’re okay with the color?”
I looked at her with tears in my eyes and replied, “Jane......., my fire-burned oven WAS black!” Can you believe it? God just keeps blessing me and my family. Don’t we have an AWESOME God? He fills our needs, before we even know we need something!

Yes Pam, we do have a wonderful God. We can trust him...ALWAYS!

Thank you for sharing your Christmas Miracle with all of us!

Merry Christmas !

God Loves you,

Debbie