In late July 2002, nine Pennsylvania miners were trapped in the Quecreek Mine and not been heard from in two days. When 50 million gallons of water had flooded the shaft, a 6-inch air pipe was lowered into their chamber. At first, the miners signaled by banging on the pipe, but now it was silent.

Hope grew as rescuers drilled through the equivalent of 20 stories of granite with a massive diamond tipped bit. Hope faded when the bit broke only a third of the way to the trapped miners— 240 feet underground. For 18 hours drilling stopped while the shattered pieces of broken bit were retrieved and a new bit was installed. The unforeseen setback was viewed as a tragic turn of events, and what little hope there was to rescue the miners seemed to evaporate.

As it turned out, the broken bit proved to be advantageous to the rescue effort, and after three days underground the nine miners were freed.

"What a beautiful ending!" said Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker. "We're nine for nine, and we got all of our guys out. As precarious as the circumstances had become at points, we fought through it, and we were ultimately successful. It is nothing short of a miracle."

The governor went on to tell the media that the time lost in repairing the snapped drill seemed in retrospect like "providential intervention." Governor Schweiker observed that the 18 hour interruption allowed water to be pumped out to make the ultimate rescue possible. Conversely if the shaft had been penetrated earlier, the drillers would probably have encountered only water and not miners.

The setbacks we face in life often appear to us as tragic turns of events. From God's perspective, however, such setbacks are necessary mileposts en route to his desired destination for us.