Very sad story

Reminds me of this:
One day there was this preacher and he was having his usual sermon when all of a sudden it started raining, really, really, hard!!!! After about 1 full hour of complete non-stop rain, they started making evacuations because the whole church was flooding, but the preacher just stood there in the ankle-deep water. A guy in a car came up to him and said. "Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!" But the preacher just replied "Don't worry God will save me." The man then said "Whatever!" and drove away. The water was now knee-deep and a guy in a raft came over to the Preacher and said "Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!" Despite the second warning the Preacher just stood there and replied "Don't worry God will save me." The man then said "Whatever!!" and rowed away in the orange raft.

The water was now waist-deep and a guy in a power boat came to the Preacher and said "Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!" Despite the third warning the Preacher just stood there and replied "Don't worry God will save me." With that the man said "Whatever!" and jetted away in the power boat. The water was now neck-deep and a guy in a helicopter came and said "Preacher, Preacher you better get your butt in here before you drown!" The man still just stood there and replied "Don't worry God will save me." And with that the man said "Whatever" and flew away. The water then got so deep that the Preacher was sucked under and died. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he was in heaven. He then saw God and asked "God! Why didn't you save me from that horrible flood?!?" God then replied, " I sent you a car, a raft, a power boat, and a helicopter!!! What else do you want from me?!"

Yeah, I've heard half a dozen versions of that story.

The problem with its message is that since those supposed miracles could have happened naturally, they're not really miracles or signs of divine intervention. To be a real miracle, it has to violate normal laws of nature. If the preacher has to deal with nature like everybody else, with no expectation of any supernatural intervention, what's the use of praying or believing in the old invisible wizard (besides his threats and promises about the afterlife, something whose existence would require frequent supernatural intervention to somehow record each person's brain as he is dying).

If that preacher were an atheist he would have jumped on the first boat and escaped.

There is a very old saying that people who understand the nature of faith have, "God helps them who help themselves." Miracles require effort not comfort.

but those who help themselves, are helping themselves

Actually Jwray the universal message of such stories is for man to use his God-given (or biologically driven COMMON SENSE!

God is not sending these folks golden UPS trucks full of packaged answers, damnit. I want to shake these people!

This woman is mentally ill and someone should have stepped in and saved this child.