All of us authors are fond of the books we write but I think that god is taking things a little too far. The New York Post in a story about the explosion in East Harlem last week that killed eight people and injured many more, finds a bright side.
Firefighters pulled an intact Bible from the charred rubble of the East Harlem explosion Saturday — and the pastor of the site’s destroyed church was so moved to see the good book, it nearly broke his heart.
…The large, black, leather-bound Bible had been resting on the pulpit of Perez’s storefront Spanish Christian Church when the building and the one next door at 116th Street and Park Avenue blew to pieces on Wednesday.
Eight residents — including five of Perez’s parishioners — perished.
…The pastor was preparing for a prayer vigil a block from the blast site when he saw it again.
“He was sitting down, because he wasn’t feeling well,” Vargas-Rosa recalled. “He held the book, and he said, ‘Oh my. Thank God,’ ” before clutching at his heart, she said.
“It is miraculous,” she added.
The book had been buried in rubble that burned and smoldered for days — and yet it wasn’t singed. Every word remained legible.
…“Somehow, God protected it,” he said, holding the book aloft as he spoke near the explosion site.
This isn’t the first time that god has seemed to care more about his book than about his people. It also happened during the attacks of 9/11. That time, he managed to save just a single page but that did not deter his followers from proclaiming that another miracle had occurred.
Buried under tons of World Trade Center steel and rubble, rescue workers found a page from the Bible that spoke of a tower that reached to the heavens.
The shocking revelation of faith and hope is “a sign from God that he is still watching over us,” said photographer and actor Gary Gere, who found the passage from Genesis, about the Tower of Babel, amid the ruins.
“After more than 93 days of fires, a skinny little frail page from the Bible survived. I find it quite unbelievable,” he told The Post.
If this is the way that god is watching over us, I am never going to hire him as a baby sitter. He is the kind of person who, in the case of fire, will rush out saving the microwave rather than the children and pets.
That other “tower that reached to the heavens” was one which Yahveh feared and hated.
The 9/11 troofers have been pointing at the wrong suspects when the perp left a clue right in front of their eyes!
Pity that god chappy didn’t put as much effort into saving all of the Beowulf manuscript. He has no taste.
Maybe God isn’t as powerful as He used to be. Saving a book -- even a Bible as big as the one they had -- is a lot easier than saving eight human beings. Plus, books require no oxygen and are impervious to cold (and it was freakin’ freezing that night).