David N. Walker's Blog, page 18

Salvation

Frequently, non-Christians—as well as some Christians—can be heard to say “I hope I go to heaven when I die,” or words to that effect. It surprises these people when a Christian states firmly that he or she will definitely go to heaven. Some even think we’re braggarts for making such assertions.

As Walter Brennan used to say in his title role in the television show The Guns of Will Sonnet, “No brag; just fact.” We’re not bragging or making outlandish claims when we aver that we will be in heaven. We’re just stating a fact.

John 3:16 states that “. . .whoever believes in Him [Jesus] shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This is factually stated in other places in the New Testament, but I won’t go into all of them. Suffice it to say that God’s word promises that all Christians, i.e., those who have believed in Jesus and trusted Him for their salvation, will be saved and will go to heaven.

It doesn’t depend on sinless behavior, of which none of us are capable. Nor does it depend on having someone finger a bunch of beads or pray and pour oil over our bodies after we have already left them. Nor do we have to attend church every Sunday or perform in any other way. The Bible is very clear that our salvation depends solely on our accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Q.E.D., as they say in geometry classes.

Nothing else is needed. Jesus alone is sufficient. With Him, we need nothing else, and without accepting Him as our savior, nothing else will avail us any benefit when it comes to salvation.

Have you repented of your sins and asked Jesus to come into your heart and become your lord and savior? If not, all you have to do is address Him in prayer, confessing that you are a sinner incapable of conquering your own sins, submitting yourself to Him and asking Him to take over your life. If you can pray that prayer with sincerity, it immediately becomes a done deal, and I welcome you as a newborn brother or sister in Christ Jesus.

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, Confession, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, salvation, Sins, Works

Fort Worth Hail Storm

Each year during the first weekend in May, an event called Mayfest takes place in Trinity Park in Fort Worth. The event lasts several days and draws large crowds of people. It also frequently draws rain or other bad weather to dampen the spirits of the people attending.

In 1995, the weather outdid itself in nastiness. On May 5th, some 10,000 people were in attendance when a hailstorm hit. This wasn’t just any hailstorm, though. Hail the size of baseballs pounded much of the city, injuring at least 100 people. Lightning and flooding from the storm killed at least 13 people. With that many people out in the open at Mayfest, I’m surprised the injury total wasn’t much heavier than it was.

Sharon and I were at home when this storm hit, so we weren’t exposed to the bodily damage so many suffered, but property damage is another matter. The photo below, taken by Tim Marshall, was not of our roof, but it was typical of what happened. Our shake roof was completely destroyed by the storm, leading us to replace it with a light steel roof that’s supposed to be several times stronger.

At the time, in addition to our two cars, we had a conversion van we used for road trips. Since we had a two-car carport, that left one vehicle uncovered. Since Sharon can’t stand cold and I can’t stand heat, we left the van out on the driveway in the winter and her car out during the summer.

The photo below was taken by Tim Marshall and was not of our car. However, it does look a lot like Sharon’s Mercury Grand Marquis after the storm passed. We stood in the carport and watch as the four-inch diameter hail struck the car and the driveway. It was a most amazing sight.

Body shops, glass companies and roofing contractors all over the area must have gotten rich in the aftermath of this storm. I had a friend in the roofing business, and we got that taken care of reasonably soon. Glass companies set up on several large parking lots to replace auto glass, but it took us several months to get Sharon’s car into a body shop to get the dents removed or the panels replaced.

What’s the biggest hail you have seen?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Fort Worth Tornado, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found; was blind but now I see.

What Christian hasn’t sung those famous words—probably many, many times?

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

Do we think about the words when we sing songs like this? Only God’s grace—in the person of the Holy Spirit—could convict us of our sins and our need to be saved, and only that same grace could relieve the fears brought on by that conviction.

Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.

Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

How wonderful that we can have absolute confidence in that saving grace. How comforting to know that when we have given ourselves to Jesus nothing and no one can pluck us out of His hand.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.

What a magnificent statement of the whole gospel in a few brief lines this song is. A people lost in the clutches of sin can be saved by the blood of Jesus under the grace of God. Not only that, but once removed from those clutches, we can know that grace will lead us all the way to our heavenly home. And then, in as close an explanation of eternity as the human mind can come, the writer asserts that ten thousand years in heaven won’t reduce the amount of time we’ll have to look forward to spending there.

What kind of man wrote this blessed song? John Newton was raised by a devout Christian mother who exposed him to the gospel and led him to memorize Bible passages and hymns. Like so many of us, however, John drifted into the world after his mother’s death.

He served in the British Navy and deserted, was captured, and was flogged. More voyages, dangers, toils and snares followed, just as he stated in verse three of the song.

On the night of March 9, 1748, John was jolted awake by a brutal storm that suddenly engulfed the ship. In great peril, he cried out to the Lord the next day. That experience was a turning point in Newton’s life. He later wrote he never allowed the anniversary of that date to pass unnoticed—how God came from on high and delivered him out of deep waters.

After a few years of halting spiritual growth, John Newton became one of the most powerful preachers in British history and authored many hymns, of which Amazing Grace is the best known. He added a verse near the end which has been pretty much forgotten through the years:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;

But God, Who called me here below, shall be forever mine.

What a beautiful verse, comparing the temporal nature of our universe with the eternal nature of God. How have we lost sight of this verse when we sing his hymn?

What’s your favorite hymn? What can you tell us about its author and/or the circumstances which prompted him or her to write it?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, John Newton, Sins, Works

The Revolving Clock

In 1957 the Continental National Bank of Fort Worth completed its new steel and glass headquarters building. It was the first modern building built in downtown Fort Worth. All the others up to that time looked like they were from the 1920′s.

The first photo above shows the shining steel and glass tower of the Continental National Bank amid all the older brick buildings of the city. The second photo shows a clearer picture of the building itself. Although the glass and steel construction marked the beginning of a new era for our city, that’s not what really set this building apart from all the others. The CNB sign on top of the building was actually part of a clock.

As this photo shows, the structure on top of the building also housed a digital clock—at a time when digital clocks were a rarity. Two sides of the 32 foot tall revolving cube bore the bank’s initials, and two sides bore the displays of the clock. The top of the clock was 420 feet above the street.

Our house in the Ridglea neighborhood was between five and six miles west of downtown, but I could stand on our second story deck and see the tower and the clock. With binoculars, I could even tell the time it displayed.

This tower and clock gave our city a uniqueness. Dallas and Houston had no such features. In fact, I don’t recall seeing such a building with such a clock in any other cities I’ve been in.

Sadly, the clock quit revolving in 1978 and quit keeping time in 1991. It was removed in 2000, and the building was imploded in 2006. A future post in this series will explain why it was taken down.

What unique landmarks set your hometown apart from other places?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Fort Worth, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Revolving Clock, Self-help

Right or Wrong–So What?

The fifteenth chapter of Proverbs starts out with these words of wisdom: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.” Another passage admonishes us not to let the sun go down on our wrath.

How often must I learn this lesson? I know these things—not just in my mind, but deep down in my heart. I know and agree with this wisdom, but . . .

Even the world knows these things. Castle, a television program that is not at all Christian, presented this same lesson in one of its episodes.

Richard Castle is a bestselling crime novelist who works with Kate Beckett, an NYC homicide detective. In this episode, he incurs her wrath by sticking his nose into an area of her personal life she has told him to leave alone. When she confronts him, he begins justifying himself, and she ends up telling him their partnership is over and he’s no longer welcome at the station.

His teenage daughter, talking about a boy who has done her wrong, asks why guys always try to justify themselves instead of just apologizing, which gets him thinking about what happened with Beckett. This is exactly what he did to her.

He goes back to the station and is confronted by her hostility. Before they have a chance to get into it all over again, he tells her that he doesn’t want to leave under those circumstances. If they are never going to see each other again, he wants her last memory of him to be an apology, which he issues powerfully without expecting anything from her in return. As he turns to leave the station, she calls to him and says, “See you tomorrow?”

A part of human nature is to want to be right and for everyone else involved to acknowledge that we’re right. But if you and I both think we are right about opposing stands, how is this demand for acknowledgment going to work? I know I’m right, and I want you to admit it, but you know you’re right and want me to admit that. A chess player would say “stalemate”—an unbreakable draw.

My first wife and I did this often, which is a large part of why we’re exes. At some point along the way, I learned this lesson, and Sharon and I committed to each other that we would not go to sleep at night mad at each other.

Living up to that is not so difficult. If I value our relationship more than I value always proving I’m right, it becomes easy just to apologize. When I do, she usually will apologize to me also. If not, she will at least accept my apology, throwing water on the fire that was beginning to build between us.

Last night I got carried away with my righteousness, or rightness, and kept raising my voice in an effort to get her to see that I was right and she was wrong. The net result was that for the first time in our 21 years of marriage we went to sleep mad at each other.

How important was the issue involved? Almost inconsequential, which seems to be the case with a lot of marital spats. How could being right about this possibly be more important than upholding our relationship?

When I went in to wake her up this morning, I started with an apology, and she gave an immediate positive response. All is now okay, but it took me a long time to get to sleep last night, thinking about how I’d mishandled that situation.

Which one of us was right? Which one was the aggrieved party? Who cares? That’s the whole point—who cares? Being reconciled rather than angry at each other is MUCH more important than being proven right.

Having relearned this lesson once again, I hope I don’t soon forget it.

How do you handle it when you and your spouse—or even you and a good friend—get crossways with each other? How do you reconcile—or avoid the need for reconciliation?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Apologize, Apology, Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Relationship, Sins, Works

The Great Flood

In May of 1949, an event took place that no one alive in Fort Worth would ever forget. I was about to finish kindergarten, having turned six a few months earlier. My brother Bill was just three months old, and my sisters Barb and Kay were eight and two, respectively, all of which left my mother somewhere between busy and totally frazzled.

Late on May 16 it began to rain. Sometime on the 17th, the eleven inches of rain upstream on the Trinity River raised the river level until it broke over and through its levees, spilling floodwater near downtown Fort Worth.

Montgomery Ward, shown above, sat near the river. Although normally high and dry, in this photo of the flood, you can see water halfway up the first floor of the building.

 

The Seventh Street Theater, approximately a mile from the river channel, is shown above in normal times and during the flood. As a six year-old kid, I could hardly fathom the amount of water it took to do this.

One of the flood victims was the municipal water works, which sit on the bank of the river just southeast of Montgomery Ward. This contaminated our water supply, causing the city to alert residents not to use tap water for drinking or cooking without first straining and boiling it.

My dad, a pediatrician, felt he needed to be available to help with medical needs, but he wanted his family out of town until the floodwaters abated and the city water became safe to drink once again. This left my mother to deal with the four of us, and even though I was always a perfect child, I’m sure that wasn’t an easy job.

We started for the West Texas town of Lamesa, where Mother’s brother and sister and their families lived, driving our un-airconditioned Studebaker. Although I don’t really remember it, I can imagine that in the Texas heat, my brother and sisters would not be the most pleasant of company.

Mother stopped in the town of Breckenridge for lunch. Try to imagine her carrying a three month-old baby with diaper bag, etc., and dealing with a two year-old while she herded us into the restaurant.

Mother and Dad were both teetotalers in those days, so my only exposure to any kind of liquor was seeing beer commercials on the television which Dad had bought on my birthday while Mother was in the hospital delivering Bill. As we entered the restaurant, I saw the beer advertisements on the walls and decided it would be a good idea to order one.

Although I remember this story primarily from hearing Mother tell it through the years, I’m sure I realized she was having a tough time and needed some entertainment. In an effort to provide that, when the waitress took our orders, I told her I’d have a beer. After falling somewhere under the table, Mother told the lady I meant a root beer.

“I do not.” I’ve always hated root beer. “I want a beer.”

At this point, I’m sure my tee totaling mother was beet-red. I’m equally sure everyone else in the restaurant was roaring with laughter. Guess Mother didn’t realize I was trying to entertain her. She probably even forgot for that moment that I was a perfect child.

I don’t know how long we stayed away from home, but I’m sure I had a better time than Mother did. I always enjoyed visiting our kinfolks in Lamesa, and I also didn’t have to care for a newborn and a two year-old.

What natural disasters or other events do you remember from your childhood?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, flood, Fort Worth, Fort Worth flood, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help

Surprising Prayer

So far as I know, my mother has been a Christian all my life. She has told me when I hovered near death from encephalitis at age two, she went over to a corner to pray while the doctor examined me.

She says that in that moment she gave me back to God and told Him to take me to Himself or leave me to her according to His will. As a father, I can’t even imagine how hard it would have been for me to say that prayer about my daughter. I’d have been all over God to heal her immediately rather than inviting Him to have His will.

As she entered her mid-to-late nineties, her mental capacity has dwindled to the point that she doesn’t always even recognize me when I come to see her. When I mention specific friends or kinfolk to her, their names strike some sort of vague bell in her head, but they don’t really mean a lot to her. She basically just sits in a chair all day—unable to walk or to see well enough to read or watch television.

As her brainpower has diminished and her ability to enjoy life has waned, she has formed the habit singing hymns to occupy herself. She mainly sings “Jesus Loves Me” or “Jesus Loves the Little Children”—sometimes loud enough to be heard, and at other times barely whispering the words.

This has fascinated me for some time now, that she can remember very little of her past life but can remember Jesus and songs she has sung in church through the years. The other day, I learned something new about the strength and currency of her spiritual life.

One of the caregivers at the assisted living group home where Mother lives told me that when she’s troubled about something she goes into my mother’s room and talks to her about whatever it is and asks Mother to pray for her. And she told me that Mother ALWAYS prays for her when she does this.

She’s forgotten what her career was, unless someone prompts her. She can’t recall my father at all. She remembers other people only when I remind her who they are or were, and then she promptly forgets them. She can’t tell you her birthday or how old she is. But she knows exactly who Jesus is and how important He is to her. And she remembers how to pray and is always ready and willing to intercede for anyone who asks her.

What if you live to be ninety-eight and can neither walk nor see nor remember much of anything from your past? Wouldn’t it be nice in that situation to remember who Jesus is and to spend your time with Him?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Archives Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, intercession, Jesus, Prayer, Sins, Works

An August Afternoon of Tragedy

On the first Friday in August, a small group of single adults from my church gathered in a home in Arlington, Texas. It was a social get-together and discussion about forming an official single-adult group at the church.

It’s been twenty-nine years since that gathering, so I don’t remember who the other people in attendance were. I don’t even remember how we happened to turn the television on.

It was raining, but nothing about the weather seemed out of place to us. That is, until we saw the horrible pictures the news crews were sending from DFW Airport.

An airplane depends upon the speed of the air rushing over and under its wings to provide the lift to keep it in the air. Normally, airspeed is a relatively stable thing. It increases as the pilot increases the engine thrust or lowers the plane’s nose to descend, and it decreases as the pilot reduces the engine thrust or raises the plane’s nose to climb. These increases and decreases are relatively gradual, not instantaneous.

Weather can throw monkey wrenches into this normal stability. Wind direction and velocity vary with altitude. While the wind on the ground may be from the south at ten miles per hour, at 30,000 feet above that same point, it may be from the north at twenty miles per hour. Again, normally this change in direction and velocity is gradual as the altitude increases. A thousand foot change in altitude may bring on a change of a few compass points in direction and a couple of miles per hour in velocity, but it’s gradual enough not to be particularly noticeable.

On this particular afternoon, Delta Flight 191 was inbound to DFW from Fort Lauderdale on its way to Los Angeles. Unknown to the pilots, there was a phenomenon known as wind shear taking place just off the approach end of runway 17C.

A Lockheed L1011 similar to that of Flight 191

In wind shear, the air at a given altitude is markedly different in velocity and/or direction from that immediately above it. A plane flying at 149 knots airspeed (171 mph), which was the landing speed for this Delta L-1011, and heading into, say, a fifteen knot headwind would have a groundspeed of 134 knots. The wind would be holding back the plane’s speed in reference to the ground by that fifteen knots.

If the plane then descended through a wind shear into a level where the wind was coming from behind at fifteen knots, the groundspeed would still be 134 knots, but the airspeed would suddenly drop to only 119 knots. That sudden shift in the wind would have no instantaneous effect on the airplane’s speed with reference to the ground, but that’s not what keeps a plane in the air. The airspeed in this example would suddenly drop from 149 knots—the plane’s landing speed—to 119 knots—which would be too slow to sustain flight, and it would fall to the ground.

This is perhaps a bit oversimplified and exaggerated, but it illustrates the effect of wind shear. I don’t know the various speeds actually involved for this airplane, but the net effect was that the plane hit the group short of the runway and not in a proper configuration to land.

It touched the ground about 1.2 miles north of the runway, where it bounced back into the air. It came back down again crossing State Highway 114, a freeway running by the north end of the airport, where it demolished a black Toyota, killing its driver. Then it skidded onto the airport property where it collided with two 15,000 gallon water tanks and exploded. Out of 163 passengers and crew members, 136 were killed in addition to the Toyota driver.

We completely lost interest in our party as we stood glued to the television screen. That afternoon, and for days afterward, the media continued to show view after view of the crash and the rescue efforts that followed. I don’t know about people who viewed this around the world, but those of us here in the Metroplex that afternoon have the scene indelibly imprinted on our brains. I doubt any of us will ever forget it.

Where were you on August 2, 1985? What do you remember about this tragedy?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Delta Air Lines, Delta Flight 191, DFW Airport, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help

Fathers

Since Sunday was Father’s Day, our Sunday School lesson was about fathers and fatherhood. Our teacher posed two questions to the class:

Ø What do you appreciate the most about your father?

Ø What would you have liked most to change about your father?

Most of the answers to the first question had to do with specifics. My dad taught me to be honest. He demonstrated integrity. He showed me love. He made me feel secure. Things such as this.

Answers to the second question varied from “I wish he’d been better able to demonstrate love” to “I wish he hadn’t been so stern” or “I wish he’d spent more time with me.” I was in the first category. I always knew my father loved me, and his inability to express it didn’t bother me too much, but it left my siblings all three seriously questioning whether or not he truly loved them.

As I listened to the discussion and the various answers to the questions, I thought more and more about a long-held opinion of mine. I think the most important thing a father can do for his children is to show them unconditional love.

This is not to say a father should not correct his children when they do wrong. Far from it. That’s an important part of any parent’s duties. But even as he spanks or grounds a child or metes out some other punishment, he should make it abundantly clear the it’s the behavior he disapproves and not the child. He must always reinforce his love for the child in all situations.

Many studies through the years have concluded that a strong, demonstrative, loving father is a primary factor in keeping teenage girls from straying into all kinds of bad and dangerous behavior. I totally agree with that conclusion.

The father’s influence doesn’t merely affect the physical world, either. It also has a profound effect in spiritual matters. Beyond teaching a child to pray or to tithe or the attend church or other such things, a father has a major influence on how a person perceives God.

Rightly or wrongly, we tend to see our heavenly father in the light of our earthly fathers. People whose fathers successfully demonstrated unconditional love have no problem seeing God as an unconditionally loving Father. Those whose fathers either didn’t show much love or tied the love to the child’s behavior usually see God as a whimsical being who loves them when they are good and doesn’t when they are bad.

If I did nothing else for my daughter, I hope I exhibited unconditional love so clearly she couldn’t fail to feel it. I think that’s probably the most important thing any of us can do for our children.

What do you think your father did very well or wish he had been able to do better?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

 

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Father's Day, Fathers, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Baby Jessica

This post is another in a series of topics suggested by a special section of our local newspaper which I thought my readers would find interesting. All were things or events from the past that I remember being impressed by.

Today’s event didn’t take place here. It was in West Texas in Midland—the oil capital of the world.

Back on October 14, 1987, the name Jessica McClure was blasted around the world. Eighteen month-old Baby Jessica somehow fell twenty-two feet down into an eight-inch well casing. For the next 58 hours, much of the world remained glued to radios and televisions as her rescue proceeded.

Interest in this story was so great ABC ran a made-for-TV movie in 1989 entitled Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, starring Patty Duke and Beau Bridges. On May 30th, 2007, USA Today ranked Jessica McClure on a list of “25 lives of indelible impact.” President George Bush is shown in the photo below holding Jessica at the White House in June, 1989:

Due to injuries suffered in the fall and during the 58 hours she spent cramped in the tiny casing, Jessica has had to undergo some 15 surgeries over the years, but she managed to grow up in a fairly normal manner. She graduated from Greenwood High School, near Midland, and married Daniel Morales. They have a son and a daughter.

When she turned 25 in 2011, Jessica received a trust fund of some $800,000 from donations people sent the family. Part of this fund helped the couple purchase their current home, which is less than two miles from the scene of her accident, of which she has no memory.

As I watched the video below, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and chills ran up and down my spine as if it were just now occurring:

This story may not mean all that much to those of you too young to remember it, but thinking back over the events of that two-and-a-half day period, I can’t imagine anyone who was alive at the time ever forgetting it. What do you remember about this event and the amazing rescue?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Jessica McClure, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Midland Texas, People, Personal development, Self-help