A mother and her 18-day-old son survived more than 32 hours trapped under rubble after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Venezuela, and the family says a Bible is the reason the baby came out without a scratch.
When we hear about catastrophic disasters like earthquakes, we can’t help but ask God why something like this had to happen. We see families searching through rubble for their loved ones, parents desperately looking for their kids, and death tolls that just keep climbing. It’s hard to make sense of any of it. But even in the middle of all that loss, we still see God working in ways we could never imagine, and this story of a mother and her newborn son is one of them.
Dayana Patiño was changing her 18-day-old son Juan David’s diaper on the eighth floor of their apartment when the earthquakes hit last week in Venezuela.
The floor gave way and she held the baby to her chest as they fell with the building. For the next 32 hours they were trapped under the rubble together, and rescuers had to slide a straw through a small pipe just to get water down to the baby.
“The one who gave me the strength not to fall into despair was my son,” Patiño said. She said she just kept telling herself, “As long as he was alive, I was going to be alive.”
Her husband Gerson Trujillo wasn’t home when it happened but he ran to the building and got neighbors to help dig. Patiño broke her knee and got hurt pretty bad, but here’s the part that gets us.
Little Juan David didn’t have one scratch on him. The parents believe it’s because they landed on a Bible when the building came down, and we believe that too. Out of everything in that apartment, it was God’s Word that ended up right under that baby.
When I read through those details, I am absolutely amazed to think about how an infant at just 18 days old could survive something like this. At that age a baby is so fragile. Can we even imagine an infant trapped under rubble for more than a day? But little Juan made it through 32 hours down there without a scratch.
It honestly defies all human logic. But as a person of faith, I don’t believe this was luck. When you look at the fact that out of everything in that ruined apartment, the family Bible ended up perfectly positioned beneath that little boy, it’s hard to call that anything but God’s hand at work.
Rescue crews are still working day and night across Venezuela, and we should keep every family still waiting on news in our prayers.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” Isaiah 43:2
WATCH: Mom and Newborn Survive 32 Hours in Rubble, Family Credits a Bible
