|
A Dream, A Prayer
And A Bible
by Evelyn Lein Papa Marty
carefully closed the scorched but still readable pages of the
huge, leatherbound Swedish Bible. Flames had licked a slight hollow
between
its wide silver clasps that he now fingered to latch.
He smiled at us. "Remember tonight’s verse,
children: ‘For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son…Jesus.’"
Haltingly, we repeated the words in childish
tones.
Father seemed happiest when reading to us
from the burned five-inch-thick
Bible, a devotional ritual he performed every evening. Many times he sat
in a
favorite rocker next to the table where the Bible lay and ran his hand
affectionately over its cover. "Den goda boken…min hjap I woden," he said
in
Swedish, meaning, "The good book, my help in trouble."
Papa was not the original owner of the
Bible, but he valued it above
anything in the house. It was the focal point in our small cottage, much
like the
attraction of a fireplace. Guests seemed to gather around it, examining
the life-
like drawings on its pages.
On these occasions, I overheard snatches of
conversation about a fire
called the Red Demon. Tears would come to Papa’s eyes. In time, the Bible
and
the fire story became part of our family heritage. Hearing it always
inspires.
From the day Papa found the Bible smoldering
in the ashes it became a
symbol of hope and renewed his deep and abiding faith in the Lord.
The summer of 1894 was dry and hot in
Hinckley, a small town in north
central Minnesota. No rain fell for three months. The booming lumber
industry
left dry underbrush and resinous pine stumps in its wake. Small fires
were
ignited daily in the area—some by sparks from the trains which rumbled
back
and forth.
Wind was the archenemy in fighting the
blazes. On Sept. 1, a strong wind
sprang out of the southwest and whipped these sputtering fires into open
flames. Volunteers fought bravely to contain them until many fires
joined,
giving birth to the Red Demon. This fire mass rolled along, creating a
tornado-
like draft, burning entire villages and engulfing the countryside.
The sky became darker, even though it was
mid-morning. The acrid smell of
smoke hung in the air. The fury of the wind increased.
Concerned for the safety of his family 18
miles away, Papa left his job and
hurried to the railway station. There the agent sadly told him that a
wire had
just been received: Hinckley, his village, was in flames.
Frantic about his loved ones, Papa jumped
aboard a train heading for
Hinckley. After several miles, they had to stop when confronted by a
deserted
train on the tracks, engulfed in flames. Its passengers had taken refuge
in a
nearby swamp. Papa ran to the swamp and searched but found no sight of
his
family. He realized there was only one way for him to get to Hinckley.
Covering his face with the handkerchief his
wife, Inga, had made him, Papa
started walking home. The heat scorched his lungs. Desperate about his
family,
he pressed on. Reaching Hinckley, he found it in smoldering ruins.
Exhausted and grief-stricken to the point of
collapse, Papa stumbled to the
place where his little home had stood. It was now a pile of cinders. He
clung
to hope until a fellow searcher said, "So far as I have been able to
learn, your
family has perished."
Soon, Papa discovered that his fellow
searcher had been right—only his son
had survived and was being treated in a nearby city, safely out of the
fire’s
path.
Through his tears, Papa saw a large,
scorched Swedish Bible. He cradled
the abandoned Bible in his arms, and a calmness came over him. His faith
and
courage returned. Although he had lost every possession, his son was
saved.
He knelt and thanked God for his miracle.
Almost 30 years after the Hinckley
holocaust, the now white-haired Marty
became my papa. He fathered a new family who helped take the place of the
dear ones he had lost.
I look in reverence and awe at the brown,
tattered and singed pages of our
Bible. It teaches me how to live. Through it I first learned of the Lord.
The
Bible says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes
upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you
(I Peter 4:12)." Believing that verse, I know that I will be tested and
tried in
life—just as my Papa was long ago. But just like my Papa, I need not
succumb
and lose hope. I need only to trust in the Lord!
Evelyn Lein lives in California.
|
Home