We were spending Christmas of 1978 with my parents in Weiser, Idaho. They had purchased a large ranch with an old, Victorian, two-story home built in the late 1800s and moved there after selling their ranch in Cornville.
Bruce and Mike were excited as we planned this trip and were looking forward to hitting the slopes for some good Idaho skiing. However, when we arrived in Weiser, we learned the slopes were bare of snow, so there would be no skiing. Needing something to do, Bruce started searching the papers for a used car. He found a Cougar that seemed like the one he had been longing and saving for. Dale and the boys went to see this car and when they came back to the house Bruce was driving a “new to-him” car. I wasn’t too pleased with this purchase because now Bruce and Mike wanted to go back home to be with their friends. Bruce was 18 now, and Mike was 16, so they said they would take turns driving.
Dale and I were disappointed. This was Christmas and time for family to be together, we believed. However, the day after Christmas without too much resistance, we prayed with them for safety on the roads, wished them well and bade them good-bye. I wondered why we had so easily given our permission for this trip. I remember thinking that I knew they were getting older and presumed it must be time to start cutting the apron strings.
That night, as was our family’s practice, Dad, Mother, Dale, and I studied our Bibles and prayed together. After this time together, Dale left his Bible on the family room table, and we all went to bed. Dale and I were sleeping in the front downstairs bedroom, and my parent’s bedroom was upstairs.
About midnight I woke up with the smell of smoke filling the room, burning my eyes, and irritating my lungs. I jumped up and saw the family room ablaze with flames.
“The house is on fire!” I screamed.
Dale and I stumbled in the dark to the living room door that had not been opened in a long while, and we struggled to get it open. As soon as we got outside, into the zero temperature, I ran back in yelling for my parents, who were asleep in the upstairs bedroom, to wake up and get out. Mother was hard of hearing and Dad was sound asleep. I had to yell several times before they awakened.
Once we were all safely outside, I shouted to the neighbors to call the fire department.
“Fire! Fire!” I yelled several times. Then I saw lights come on, and people began to open their doors. As soon as I saw someone I yelled in desperation again, “Call the fire department! The house is on fire!”
I ran back into our bedroom and grabbed the blankets off the bed, our down jackets, shoes, and the camera. Dale didn’t see me go in, but he did see me coming out and gave me a good scolding for going back into a burning home.
My parents’ home was seven miles from town, but within a few minutes the volunteer fire trucks and crew were there, and now with Dale’s help (he had just been trained in fire fighting as part of a requirement for teachers at MBA), they began fighting the fire. Dale alone squirted a full truck load of water into the family room. Several hours later the fire was under control enough that we were told our help was no longer needed. Kind neighbors took us in for the rest of the night.
The next morning m spite of the horrible devastation, we witnessed several miracles. The first miracle was with my hand, which had burned and blistered when I grabbed a burning log and threw it away from the woodpile on the outside wall of the family room. There was not any sign that my hand had burned; I had no blisters and no pain. The neighbors had given me a large bowl of ice water, and I kept my hand in it the rest of the night, which helped, but God did the healing.
The second miracle was that every wall in the house burned inside the sheetrock and was beyond repair, but not one piece of furniture burned, with the exception that one of the support boards on the back of the piano was scorched.
The third miracle was when Dale went into the family room to check on his Bible; he found it completely unharmed. There was an inch of ice all around it, but the Bible was not wet and it did not have any ice on it.
The fourth miracle was allowing our boys to go home. The bedroom where they had been sleeping was closest to the family room, and the windows did not open. We now understood why we had been so willing to let them go home.
Dale experienced another miracle. He saw my dad go back into the blazing house, and did not see him come out for several minutes. Dale was wondering if he would have to use his fire-fighting training to go in and get him out when Dad came running out the front door. Dad was unharmed and told Dale he had gone into the basement hoping to get water from the pump that was there. He realized, though, that he could not do this as the electricity was already out and the pump was not working. He came out just before the house really began to blaze.
I took many pictures, and when we look at those pictures, showing the house engulfed in flames, we know it truly was a miracle that anything was left, and that we were unharmed.
The next day Mother and I spent at the laundromat washing everything washable to get out the smoke smell. Dad and Dale, with the help of some of the neighbors, moved the furniture into a detached garage and some sheds.
We still thank God for his protection that night. It was a time when we visibly experienced the love and care of God Who sends His angels to protect us. I am particularly thankful He awakened me to get us all out to safety and before disaster overtook us. He does send His angels to be responsible for us and to keep us in all our ways. I am also thankful that we were there that Christmas night to awaken my parents, or we might have lost them.
The next spring Bruce put his construction training to use and helped Dad and Mom build a nice new House.
My Cup Overflows. Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Ratzlaff. All Scripture quotations—except where otherwise noted—are from The New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1994 by the Lockman Foundation, used by permission. All rights reserved. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
Carolyn has always been a positive person enjoying life and outdoor activities such as hiking and gardening, and she and her husband currently raise a good portion of their own food in small grow boxes. She also reads many health journals and is often surprised at the contrast between what was taught through the writings of Ellen White on forbidden items of diet and health, and the beneficial evidence of these same items which is supported by a plethora of scientific studies.
She and her husband Dale Ratzlaff have two married sons and four grandchildren.
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