Christmas Rubies In My Treasure Box

II. A True Story: The Coal Miner Who Saw Eternity In the early 1900s, a West Virginia miner named Thomas McGraw survived a collapse that killed several of his friends. Pinned in the dark for nearly 20 hours, he later testified in a small mountain church: “When the roof came down, I thought about my wife. Then I thought about my children. But when the air grew thin, I thought about my soul.” He said the darkness felt like “a taste of eternity without Christ.” He prayed—really prayed—for the first time in years. When rescuers finally broke through, they found him singing an old Baptist hymn: “Lord, I’m coming home.” He lived another 30 years, and every time he told the story, he ended it the same way: “The fear of God saved my soul. The love of God kept it.” Use These Pictures For This Story Only “The Christmas Candle at Barker” A Historical Christmas Narrative Based on the 1900 Barker Mine Disaster, Fayette County, WV “The people which sat in darkness saw great light.” — Matthew 4:...

“ Christmas Under the Mountain: The St. Clair Mine Story” These Pictures are only for this story. 2026© A Historical Christmas Narrative from Fayette County, West Virginia “For unto you is born this day in the city of  David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” — Luke 2:11 (KJV) The winter of 1907 settled hard over Fayette County. Snow clung to the ridges like white lace, and the New River Gorge lay quiet beneath a sky the color of slate. Coal trains rattled through the valleys, their whistles echoing off the mountainsides, carrying the lifeblood of the region toward distant cities. In the small coal camp near Mount Hope, the St. Clair Mine dominated every sunrise and every prayer. The men who worked there knew the mountain intimately—its moods, its groans, its warnings. They also knew its dangers. But coal was the only work, and families depended on it. Among the miners was Samuel “Sam” Hensley , a man in his early thirties with a gentle voice and a Bible worn soft from ye...