RD20190301

Lewis had bought the Bible 35 years
earlier, at the start of her marriage.
Like many folks, she’d used it to hold
and preserve her family’s history:
decades-old photos, newspaper obit-
uaries of loved ones, a handkerchief
from her great-grandmother, a lock
of her daughter’s hair, even a piece
of a scarf her uncle had brought back
from the Korean War.
The Bible was the first thing Lewis
looked for when she returned to the
house. It wasn’t where she’d last
seen it, on top of an antique dresser
in her bedroom. In fact, the dresser
wasn’t there at all. The only thing that
was left was the solid slab of marble
that had been the top of the piece of
furniture.
When two volunteers showed up to
help the couple dig out, Lewis had one
mission for them: “If you can find any-
thing,” she said, “please find my Bible.”
After an hour of searching, one of
the volunteers ran up to her. She had
tears streaming down her cheeks
and a book in her hands. The young
woman had found the Bible while sift-
ing through rubble. It had flown ap-
proximately ten feet from that ill-fated
dresser. Stunningly, while many books
inside the home had been destroyed

beyond recognition, the Bible was

still intact, even though it had sat in

the rain for days. “I completely broke

down,” says Lewis. “I thought it was

gone forever. It was a miracle.”

A few of the Bible’s treasures did go

missing. But ever so slowly, they, too,

began reappearing in Lewis’s life. Days

after the Bible was found, volunteers

discovered one of the newspaper obit-

uaries outside the home. Two weeks

later, a neighbor found another news-

paper clipping by her house. “It was

such a shock,” says Lewis.

Lewis and her family are living at

a friend’s house until they get back

on their feet. But the Bible already has

its well-deserved place of honor, on

Lewis’s borrowed dresser. She knows

that while every good book tells

stories of catastrophic weather and

unlikely survival, this one actually

lived it.

EVER SO SLOWLY,

THE TREASURES

REAPPEARED IN

HER LIFE.

rd.com 61

Food for Thought

Extremely suspicious that there’s no information about

brains that didn’t come from a brain.

@hippieswordfish