A lighting strike ignited a huge fire at First Baptist Church in Massachusetts on Tuesday night — and after the inferno left almost everything destroyed, only one painting survived.
A painting of Jesus Christ survived the massive fire with only a few droplets of water, while the rest of the church was turned into rubble.
Church members believe that the painting surviving the fire is a sign that Jesus is with them more than ever.
“It’s a beautiful sign of hope and a reminder that Jesus is with us,” church member Maria Kakolowski told Boston 25. “I am personally just taking it as a sign and a reminder that the Jesus, the Christ that we serve is still alive and even though our church building is gone, our church is here. The God that we serve is still here.”
A painting of Jesus Christ miraculously survived a fire that destroyed a 150-year-old Massachusetts church. https://t.co/OaftcbPki6 pic.twitter.com/PhlZfsNQid
— ABC News (@ABC) October 26, 2018
Crews began dismantling the church on Wednesday morning, the 150-year-old church will now be completely torn down.
Church officials released a statement saying, “We know that we serve a God who specializes in restoring brokenness and who can bring beauty even from ashes,” they wrote. “So we move into the future with trust, hope, and gratitude.”
Intermin pastor Norm Berndroth said, “I was down about a mile away and I just saw this fireball in the sky. It just went up like a tinderbox. It’s a building built in 1870 and it’s balloon-style so once the fire starts you know the whole building just went up quickly.”
According to officials, the damage cost was more than $1 million, with the town’s fire chief, Michael Sullivan, telling the Boston Globe the “extent of the fire on arrival was just too great for us to stop it.”
The painting of Jesus Christ surviving the inferno gives church members hope that one day they will have a new church built where the beautiful painting can be hung again.
–The Horn editorial team