If the mere presence of This Is Us star Chrissy Metz won’t make you cry, the miracle of God will.
After lying below the surface of an ice-covered Missouri lake for 15 minutes in mid-January, doctors didn’t give John Smith much chance to live, let alone be honing his summer league basketball skills.
Nor is his survival the only startling element of this miraculous story. After rescue workers pulled him from the icy lake about 40 miles west of St. Louis, the teenager spent another half hour without a pulse.
Soon after John’s mother, Joyce, walked into his emergency room ward, Dr. Kent Sutterer told her she could approach John’s bed. But the doctor didn’t reveal he was about ready to pronounce the time of her son’s death.
That announcement never came. After feeling the coldness of John’s feet, his mother recognized that God represented her only hope. The member of First Assembly of God of St. Peters decided to put Bible teacher and author Beth Moore’s teaching on the power of life and death residing in the tongue into action.
Less than a minute after praying, “Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son,” she watched with joy as a voice rang out, “I’ve got a pulse!”
This story is now the subject of Breakthrough, produced by DeVon Franklin and Samuel Rodriguez. In addition to Metz, the film stars Josh Lucas and Topher Grace.
Watch the trailer, but be sure to have tissues handy.