Her two parachutes didn’t deploy properly. Though mechanical failure was to blame, 47-year-old Joan Murray took the fall.
Arriving in North Carolina on September 25, 1999 to take her 37th jump, the bank worker and weekend skydiver was testing new equipment. At a height of 4 kilometres (2.5 miles), she jumped and her main chute failed to open.
Keeping her cool but twisting out of control, Murray pulled the cord on her backup chute. It partially opened but soon became tangled, sending the diver into a frantic free-fall. Murray didn’t stand a chance. The mother of twin girls hit the ground at 128 kph (80 mph).
In what seemed a final, insulting twist, paramedics rushed to the scene and found Murray’s shattered body covered with thousands of fire ants. They had to get rid of the vicious insects before they could recover her.
So imagine the absolute shock when the emergency workers found Murray alive. Most of her bones were broken, teeth and fillings had flown right out of her mouth, and the skydiver had more than 200 fire ant stings, but she was breathing.
It just didn’t seem possible. After all, the survival rate for a fall from a four-storey building is 50 per cent. Survivability plummets to just 10 per cent for a fall from a seven-storey building. And Murray had plummeted from a height equivalent to falling from a 1,100-storey building.
She was in a coma for two weeks and eventually underwent 20 reconstructive surgeries and almost 20 blood transfusions. As for how she managed to live on, her doctor simply wrote on her file, “A miracle.”
But as it turned out, those ants were the delivery mechanism. Murray had landed directly atop their mound, which helped cushion the fall just a bit. But, much more important, the army of ants began biting her.
Astonishingly, the diver was still conscious after impact but couldn’t move. It was the unbearable pain of the stings that eventually made her pass out.
But experts say venom from the ant stings shocked Murray’s heart and kept it beating while also prompting her body to produce more life-saving adrenaline which kept everything working until help arrived.
Almost as unbelievable, the irrepressible survivor did another dive just two years after her accident. She also declined an offer to take a disability pension and retire from her job with the Bank of America.
Murray died in 2022 but is still remembered for her positive view of life. As she told People magazine after her fall, “Sometimes we take life for granted. But I truly have fun putting my shoes on in the morning.”
As we head into a new year, we can take with us that live-in-the-moment lesson. “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so we may grow in wisdom,” says Psalm 90. “Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love so we may sing for joy at the end of our lives.
“Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery.” (vv. 12-15)
So while it’s true life is fleeting and fragile, we must also remember God can get us through anything and bring deep peace, whether He chooses to change our circumstances or the way we react to them.
Though experience can teach us much about how life works, it’s important to realize God is not bound by precedent or probabilities. Just because things usually work out a certain way, doesn’t mean they always will.
Though miracles are not common, by their very definition, we must leave room for the unexpected and unexplained. God’s will is sovereign and many of us have seen situations where the supernatural is the best and most obvious explanation.
“Pray for the best and prepare for the worst” is not a Bible verse, but it is a scriptural principle when we remember our loving Father is always there to help with that preparation.
Another lesson from Joan Murray’s story is that sometimes the seemingly negative or painful things that come into our lives are a blessing we don’t recognize until long after the fact. It can take years to see how our metaphorical fire ants — though painful at the time — were actually working to protect, teach, or mature us, or equip us for future success.
In other words, we must leave room, not only for God’s sovereignty, but His providence — His protective care and ability to work things out for the good.
In Romans 8:28, the apostle Paul says, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose for them.” And then he adds, “nothing can ever separate us from God’s love”, including “death… our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow” (v. 38)
That’s a perfect prescription for the ‘Janu-wary’ anxiety that inevitably creeps in as we face the unknown.
Let me remind you again that “We do not know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future.” And we can trust that He knows, wants, and will do what’s best for us because — as Paul also says in Romans 8 — if God gave up His Son to die for our sins, won’t He also give us everything else we need? (v. 32)
Even when He doesn’t give us all we want while we’re here, we have eternal life. How do we live on? It’s like our back-from-the-dead Great Physician writes on our file, “A miracle”.
Have a blessed 2024.
Share your thoughts with Rick at info@followers.ca A former TV reporter and journalism prof, he pastors an independent, nondenominational church in Brantford, ON called Followers of Christ (www.followers.ca)
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