Today’s God’s Word Girl is a tribute to two very incredible people whom I dearly love and those in the coal mining industry. Please read with me and wait for the incredible video at the end.
My tender hearted, humorous dad was an underground coal miner for a little over two decades. The mines were damp, (sometimes downright wet), cool, dangerous, and dark — dark few of us can imagine. Being a sun lover, I never could wrap my mind around anyone who could work underground. Dad says there were those tight places where one had to crawl on one’s belly and those flat out wet places that soaked a miner and left him chilled to the bone. And there were accidents. Once a peice of face the size of a small tire gave way just as Dad stood up; he felt it graze his back. Once a piece of rail hit his neck and chipped a bone. There were cave ins; sometimes they produced graves. Once when this happened Dad and his crew had to walk miles to exit. I imagine that was a somber walk.
To this man who has worked in dangerous and difficult situations, and mangaed to maintain a tender heart and his outrageous sense of humor, I pay tribute.
I also pay tribute to Mum, a small woman of great faith, a pillar who held up the walls when the earth was shaking. A woman who has seasoned many a life with words from the LORD. A woman who loves her man. A woman who nurtured, and continues to nurture, her children and granchildren. A soft hearted, generous woman, gifted by God in many ways. To Mum, I pay tribute.
I pay tribute to them both by sharing here today something I don’t think I have ever shared before, a song Mum wrote in honor of Dad in his coal mining years. To those who have lived it, you’ll understand. To those who haven’t, here’s your snapshot of day in the life of a coal miner and their family.
I also pay special tribute to those of you still working underground in the damp, the cool, the dangerous, and the dark, so that we can heat our homes and keep our world turning. May God preserve you and keep you and richly bless you.
Join me as we watch and listen. And if you know a coal miner or someone related to the industry, send up a prayer for them and theirs, and please help me in paying tribute by sharing. Thank you and have a blessed day!
