Our Miracle

On the first anniversary of her passing, we had a family gathering at our beach house on Key Peninsula, and her husband was going to scatter the other half of her ashes on the beach. I told him I wanted a handful to spread on the beach. As I stood on the beach with her ashes in my hand, I thought about the incredible woman she had become, and I shed a tear. I scattered her ashes on the beach at my feet.

Now, I had lectured the night before to a Bible Study group at my church on the book of Joshua that we had been studying for several weeks. In Joshua 3:17, when he led the people across the Jordan River, the Lord parted the water like he had done for Moses at the Red Sea 40 years earlier. When they reached the other side, he told Joshua to have a member from each tribe pick up a rock and make a pile of 12 rocks on the riverbank so no one would forget what happened that day.

Have you ever counted the number of rocks on a beach? As I stood there, I looked between my feet. I spotted a rock among the multitudes, and I heard, "Pick up this rock." I reached down, picked it up, and put it in my pocket. I thought about the story in the Bible when Samuel recovered the Ark of the Covenant; he set up a memorial stone and called it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus, the Lord has helped me." I knew that I would always have a rock in my pocket to remember what God had done for me here on this day.

That was on Thursday, and on Monday morning I visited a couple from church at the hospital. She was having brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. I prayed with her and then sat in the waiting room with her husband during the surgery.

I pulled the rock out of my pocket, and that is when I looked at it and found the number 748. It was sort of hard to see, but it was all there.

I have shown you where the number is on the rock.

Over the next months, I began to scrutinize the rock and search it for its meaning. Why was I told to pick up this rock? I found a mountain on the rock that looked like Mt. Rainier. I found what looked like a fish's head on the rock. On the other side, I found a fish's head facing the opposite way.

It inspired me to look at the word fish backward. Because everything of the flesh is backward from the Spirit. The things of the sinful nature are: hate, anger, and malice, while the things of the Spirit are peace, love, and joy. When I looked at the letters in the word fish backward, I heard the Spirit say, "It's an acronym for Holy Spirit Inspires Faith." When the religious leaders of the day asked Jesus for a sign, he said, "No sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah." Jonah was swallowed by the huge fish and was there for three days — the same as Christ died on a cross and was in the belly of the earth for three days until he arose from the dead.

Jesus used many fish as miracles of faith during his time on earth. When he called his first disciples, they were a bunch of fishermen; they knew that fishing at night, when the fish cannot see the net, is the best time to fish. When Jesus told them to let down their net after fishing all night and catching nothing, they thought he must not know much about fishing. But because they wanted to teach him a few things about their craft, they did it to show him just how uninformed he was. When their nets filled with so many fish that the nets broke, they knew he must be the Messiah they were all waiting for.

When Peter said they didn't have any money to pay the temple tax, he told him to go fishing. And when he caught a fish with a coin in its mouth, he was amazed. Jesus fed thousands of people twice with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish. And after he died on the cross and told his disciples to meet him in Capernaum, they decided to go fishing. On their way back that morning, after no luck, they saw a man with a fire on the beach. He called out to see if they had caught any fish, and he yelled for them to let down their nets. Peter remembered that when he was called, Jesus did the miracle with the fish, and he yelled out, "It's the Lord," and jumped in the water, swimming to shore. When they let down the net, it filled up with 153 fish.

Now, if those innocent fish all lost their life with no hope of any future, then Jesus would indeed be cruel. But what Jesus knew is that because they have no sin, they are saved for all eternity with Christ in Paradise. In Job 12:7, it says, "But ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. For which of these does not know that the hand of God has done all this?" That is why there were 153 fish in the net. It is an acronym for "All Eternal Creation." Isn't that faith, and isn't that how we are all saved: by our Faith in Christ?

But the most incredible part of the rock was when I saw the portrait of the girl who, on the rock, might certainly be a depiction of Susanne, with her hair and her turned-up nose.

In 2011, Sue and I went on a road trip to California. We were in wine country in Napa, California, and I am always interested in history, so we visited a grist mill that had a historical presentation. We came in halfway, thinking we could stay and listen to the first half and then leave. I knew Sue wasn't that interested, so we left at the end. I could have stayed, but she thought we were leaving. We drove down the hill through St. Helena, and as we passed the post office, she started saying, "LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!" as we passed a car parked on the side of the road. I quickly pulled in, and she said, "I want a picture of that license plate." I got out, snapped a photo with my phone, and got back in the car. She said, "I want that on my computer for my home screen."

I said, well, I bet that guy is in the post office. I need to talk with him, so let's give him a minute. When I saw a guy coming down the front steps, I got out of the car, and when he fumbled for his keys, I asked him if that was a personalized plate. He said, "What?" I said, "Is that license plate personalized?" "Oh no," he said, "it's just the plate number I got from the DMV." I asked if he had just a minute to chat. I told him about Susanne and the number 748. He said, "Isn't that just what God would do?" and he threw his arms around me.

I said, "No, you don't understand; my wife's name is Sue." He pulled out his knife from his pocket, dropped to one knee, and started unscrewing the screws on the plate. I said, "You can't do that." He said, "No, this plate belongs to you, and I can get new plates." And he took it off and handed it to me.

Odds are, according to the statistics, if you saw 100 license plates a day, it would take roughly 876 years to encounter that license number. There is another license plate in California that says: 2SUE748, but we believe that 4 Sue is more of a personal gift.