“I Saved Sharee!”

Six-year-old Darin lay in a hospital bed, his head and hands swathed in bandages, and assured us that he was fine. Unable to see through swollen eyes, he recognized the voices of worried loved ones and told them what had happened.

“My friend was burning weeds by the ditch bank and he let me help start some fires. When I went home, he gave me three matches. It was cold outside in the wind, so me and Sharee [his four-year-old sister] got into Bengie’s doghouse to get warm. I made a little fire with some sticks in front of the door, but the wind blew too hard and it started burning Bengie’s house.”

The children became frightened and called out to their mother for help, but the doghouse was behind the garage some seventy-five feet from the house, and she could not hear them.

“What made you crawl through the fire to get out?” we asked.

“The Spirit told me to get out and save Sharee.”

“What Spirit?” asked grandmother.

“You know, grandma, the Holy Ghost.”

It would have been remarkable for a six-year-old even to get himself out and cry for help. But as soon as Darin had crawled through the fire, he ran to the barn and got an old horse blanket, then returned to put the fire out enough to get his sister to safety. Only then did he run to the house, calling out as he entered, “Mama, I saved Sharee!”

Without stopping to explain, Darin rushed to the bathroom, took off his clothes, turned on the cold water in the tub, and got in to splash water on his face and hands.

You could say it was a miracle that two young children didn’t cower in the back of the doghouse and continue to scream for help. But it is not a miracle that gospel teaching is effective and that family prayer held each morning guides us through the day. Because of gospel teaching, a receptive little child heeded the voice of the Spirit.

Illustrated by Bradley Clark