Three Mysterious Ways stories from the headlines this week. Like always when we post these round-ups, we ask you: Is it odd, or is it God?
Super Teens
How much weight can two teenage girls lift? The Junior Women’s record for a dead lift, according to U.S.A. Power Lifting, is 518 pounds. That’s for a 20-23 year old competitive weightlifter.
Hannah, 16, and Haylee, 14, aren’t competitive weightlifters. But on April 1, they lifted 3,000 pounds—a tractor that had rolled over and pinned their father, Jeff Smith of Lebanon, Oregon.
You can read the full story, and watch a video on the NBC News site.
Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
When the Messiah comes, we’re told the lions and lambs will live in harmony, as they did in the Garden of Eden. Well, it’s not quite the same, but at the Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary in Locust Grove, Georgia, a lion, a tiger and a bear—animals that shouldn’t really get along in tight quarters—are the best of friends. Rescued as babies from a group of drug dealers who had illegally acquired the protected animals and abused them, the trio bonded together in a way never found in nature. Tigers and bears are notoriously solitary creatures, but when the animal rescue staff tried to seperate the animals, they grew agitated and refused to be pulled apart. If these guys can be friends, despite their differences, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us, no?
Read the full story, with great pictures, over at ABC’s Good Morning America site.
Found in Alaska
Last but not least, on the popular link-sharing social website Reddit, college student Matthew O. posted a picture of a man he met while working over the summer on a fish-processing boat in Alaska—a man who bore a striking resemblance to himself. He wrote, “I worked on a floating processor in Alaska last year as an adventure/summer job endeavor and met a man named Roy. Turns out, Roy is my uncle who hadn’t been seen in over 30 years by my family. Funny how life turns out sometimes.”
The post immediately prompted tons of questions, many of which Matthew was happy to answer. “Even before I got on the boat everyone said I looked like him,” Matthew wrote. “I met him, we got to talking, and whammy.
“I guess he just didn’t feel welcome/loved/wanted, and was tired of putting up with ‘real world problems.’ I know he suffered some drug addiction at some point. He just left with a note to my mom telling her that he was sorry and that he loved her, but that he had to go. He’s been on the boat for about 15 years now, unbeknownst to everyone in my family. We just assumed he had died.”
Matthew put Roy in touch with his mother, and the two siblings had a tearful reconciliation over the phone.
You tell us, Mysterious Ways fans. Are these stories just weird coincidences? Or is something more powerful at work?
What miracles have you seen, heard, or read about lately? Send your stories to us!
