In 1963, archaeologists excavating the ancient fortress of Masada in Israel's Judean Desert uncovered a small clay jar containing date palm seeds. For four decades,...

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50Universal

229 words

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When the Mountain Reminded Us Who Reigns

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with the force of five hundred atomic bombs. The blast leveled 230 square miles of forest in...

Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9Universal

222 words

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The Man Who Ran to His Son

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond was considered a medal favorite in the 400-meter semifinal. He had trained for this moment his...

Universalrestoration

246 words

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The Condemned Highway That Saved a City

In 2019, engineers inspecting the Hernando de Soto Bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee discovered a critical fracture in a steel beam — a crack that...

Matthew 3:1-12Universal

254 words

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The Diver Beneath Winchester Cathedral

In 1905, engineers discovered that Winchester Cathedral, one of England's longest medieval churches, was slowly sinking into marshy Hampshire soil. Its ancient foundations, laid nearly...

1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17Universal

251 words

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The Slaver Who Sang of Freedom

John Newton had blood on his hands. For years he commanded slave ships, transporting human beings across the Atlantic in conditions of unspeakable horror. He...

Universalfreedom

240 words

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The Diver's Message From the Dark

On July 2, 2018, twelve boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach vanished into the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand....

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal

230 words

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Rebuilt After the Storm

In September 2005, Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ruins. Nearly 1,800 people died, and 80 percent of the city flooded. The New Orleans Saints,...

Universalrestoration

230 words

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The Watchman ofEli Cohen

In the autumn of 1884, a young Scottish minister named George Matheson — blind since the age of eighteen — set out on a walking...

Psalm 121Universal

251 words

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The Lighthouse Keeper of Moelfre

On the night of October 27, 1859, a hurricane-force storm slammed into the Welsh coast at Moelfre. The Royal Charter, a clipper ship carrying 450...

Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9Universal

217 words

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The Huddle That Survives the Storm

In the Antarctic winter, when temperatures plunge to negative sixty degrees and winds scream at a hundred miles per hour, emperor penguins do something remarkable....

John 13:34-35Universal

244 words

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The Prisoner Who Took Another Man's Place

In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. As punishment, the SS deputy commander Karl Fritzsch selected ten men from Block 14 to die by...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

232 words

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The Bridge His Grandfather Started

In 1929, Joseph Strauss submitted his final design for the Golden Gate Bridge, but he never saw traffic cross it. He died just months after...

2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16Universal

234 words

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The Race He Was Called to Run

In 1924, Eric Liddell arrived in Paris as Britain's fastest sprinter, heavily favored to win gold in the 100 meters. Then the schedule was posted....

Universalobedience

222 words

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More Than a Collection of Stars

In the months leading up to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, coach Herb Brooks made a decision that stunned the hockey...

Universalcommunity

233 words

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Florence Nightingale's Lamp in the Darkness

When Florence Nightingale arrived at the British military hospital in Scutari, Turkey, in 1854, she found soldiers dying not from their wounds but from the...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20Universal

242 words

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The Father Who Came Back to the Table

In 2018, a restaurant owner in Memphis named Frank watched his teenage son steal $4,000 from the register and disappear for three weeks. The money...

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9Universal

255 words

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The Simplest 911 Call Ever Made

On January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. But before that miraculous gliding descent, something remarkably...

Romans 10:8b-13Universal

241 words

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The Survivor Tree

In October 2001, a recovery worker at Ground Zero noticed something impossible in the rubble. Buried beneath twisted steel and concrete dust stood a Callery...

Matthew 28:1-10Universal

240 words

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The Knock No One Expected

In 2010, thirty-three Chilean miners were trapped 2,300 feet underground in the San José copper mine near Copiapó. For seventeen days, no one on the...

Acts 12:1-11Universal

239 words

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The Olympian Who Ran Toward an Unseen Country

In 1924, Eric Liddell stood on the Olympic podium in Paris with a gold medal around his neck. The whole of Scotland celebrated him. Newspapers...

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16Universal

235 words