Photo Source: DOE

Did you ever feel that it just wasn't your time to die? All the machinery was there in place to kill you, yet somehow, you managed to survive. This must have been how Michael Holmes felt when he was skydiving. Apparently he jumped from a plane and his main chute didn't open. Being an experienced skydiver he must not have been too worried at that point because he had a backup chute. When the backup chute didn't open, that was another story. He must have had angels looking out for him, because even though he had dived through the air from over 4,000 meters (well over 12,000 feet), he lived to tell the tale. This was one of the few times that someone was saved by a fruit. I guess fruit is good for you. He fell into a blackberry bush which cushioned the fall and he was left with a broken ankle and punctured lung. When you consider what he went through, this was not too bad.

This was not the first time that someone jumped out of a plane without a functioning chute and lived. There was an American who was part of a bomber crew in World War II who also lived through the experience. His bomber was attacked by enemy fighters and went on fire. The crew was ordered to jump, but he didn't have his chute on and couldn't get to it because of the flames. He decided that it was better to jump out of the plane and die then to stay and be burned to death. As he neared the ground he went into a perfect landing form and landed in soft sand rolling as if he had a chute on. He broke both of his ankles but lived to tell the tale. His survival was credited to two things, the softness of the ground and the absolute perfect landing he had made. I say there was a third thing, his guardian angel.

Photo Source: Stock.xching

IN 2003 Aaron Ralston began his climb near Canyonlands National Park in Utah. He was a very experienced climber, having climbed these peaks many times before. At one point in the climb he stood on a boulder to make a crossing. This was something that he had probably done hundreds of times before, but this time something would be different. The boulder shifted and pinned his arm. The boulder was large and weighed over 800 pounds. Try as he might, he just couldn't get his arm out and there was no way to get help. If he stayed where he was, he would die. He was stuck in this position for days and he finally ran out of water and food. He had done everything possible to move this rock, but it hadn't budged. It was now Thursday and he had begun his climb on Saturday. He had endured 5 freezing cold nights. He now knew that the only way out was to cut off his arm or die. He had to break his arm bones first because his knife wouldn't be able to cut through them;. He then cut through the tissue. He wrapped the arm and climbed down the mountain meeting a couple who got him help. The bravery this man displayed is beyond most people's capacity, yet he was able to do what he had to, to survive.

A woman was driving her SUV over a bridge when her steering went out. The vehicle drifted across the lanes into the on coming traffic even though she was trying to turn the wheel, but to no avail. She hit a car and was launched into the air and crashed through a guard rail and into the icy water below. The fire department got the call and raced out to the scene. The water was 48 degrees and the car had instantly filled with water, not slowly like you see in the movies. The poor woman driver had no air to breathe and immediately her lungs began to fill with water. She released her seat belt and floated to the inside roof of the car. She managed to float out of the broken driver's side window into the cloudy water. She was able to push up off of the SUV and hit the surface. Waves pounded her and she swallowed more water. She was getting numb and the current was carrying her away. The fire department got a boat into the water and was able to rescue her. From the time she hit the water to the time of the rescue was only 7 minutes.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

A man was busily building his house when he heard a roar and before he could do anything, if there was anything that could have been done, a giant wave hit him destroying everything. He had been the victim of a tsunami that had hit Indonesia. He was young and strong and this was very lucky for him. He managed to hold on to a log when he had been hammered by the wave, but unfortunately for him, he had been swept out to sea. Every once in a while a palm tree with coconuts would drift by and he got something to eat this way. As he was dragged further and further out into the sea, a damaged boat floated by and he got on it and managed to build a raft from debris before the boat sunk. Then it happened, no more food. For three days he had been without food and without the promise of anymore. Then he got real lucky, a freighter passed him, but it kept going. He was very depressed because he figured that he hadn't been seen. All this changed when he saw the freighter turning around and coming back for him. He had survived a vicious tsunami that had killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

When you read some of the stories of survival you can't help but be amazed. The odds of some of these survivals are greater than winning the lottery. How does a man survive a jump without a parachute, or a woman a dive in a car off of a modern bridge? One just can't help but be astounded by these things. Are there other, greater powers at work here, were these people deemed too important to die by some higher power? I guess all we can say at this point is that all this seems pretty strange.