Dollywood Employee’s Discovery Leaves Him Stunned: ‘We Just Prayed. There Was Nothing Left to Do’
Isaac McCord was cleaning Dollywood's grounds after the raging fire when he found something he says he'll never forget.
Two Dollywood park employees cleaning up after the deadly, raging fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee discovered a remarkable piece of debris that appears not only prophetic but has brought at least one of the workers closer to God.
Isaac McCord, a human resources training coordinator at Dollywood, found a single charred page, lying in a puddle under a park bench, apparently from the first chapter of Joel in a King James Version of the Bible. But, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel, it was what was printed on the page, still visible after the fire, that captured McCord’s attention. He and a coworker, Misty Carver, read:
O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness (Joel 1:19-20).
McCord said the pair tried to figure out exactly which part of Joel the page came from. “We were like this is unreal, this is unbelievable. When we had both fully read it, we looked at each other — and I will never forget this moment — we both burst into tears. I was ghost white, and we just prayed. There was nothing else to do. … Still to this moment, almost four hours after the fact, I don’t have words for it.”
McCord posted the image on Facebook and it immediately went viral. Four hours later, Dollywood public relations workers reported the post had been shared over 50,000 times. In an effort to put any doubts to rest, two coworkers corroborated McCord’s story to the News Sentinel.
While he admitted he doesn’t go to church every week or read a Bible often, McCord’s experience has given him pause to think about his relationship with God and has led him to “re-examine the role religion plays in his life.” He didn’t share the story for publicity, he said. “I wanted to share this message because it brought me to tears. I wanted to share this message because I think that faith and hope is very powerful in a situation like this. There are hundreds of people that are displaced and have lost their homes. Most of these people will cling to faith. … It is something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, McCord’s Facebook has been shared over 147,000 times:
