After 12 years on the job, Officer Tyler Beddoes had seen a lot. Lately the nature of the police work was wearing him down. The very public negativity toward cops made it worse. Spiritually, he was in a bad place.

On a bitter cold day in March last year, a miracle happened.

‘This is How It is’

Before March 7, 2016, Beddoes would have a very different story to tell than he does now. In an interview with The Stream, he said he was disillusioned with religion and didn’t go to church.

The calls he ran brought him down. Even in Spanish Fork, Utah,  many people showed so much hostility toward police officers. “Life sucks,” he thought. “This is how it is.” God wasn’t someone who intervened in day-to-day life. In his life and work. He didn’t see God much at all.

A Miracle at Spanish Fork River

March 7, 2016 started out like any other day. It was cold — in the low 30s. A fisherman had seen a vehicle upside down in the Spanish Fork river. Four officers responded, Beddoes among them. On the way, dispatch told the officers that the fisherman saw a hand inside the car. Someone was trapped.

When the officers arrived, they couldn’t see anything inside the partly submerged car. They heard a woman’s voice, saying, “Help me, help me!” The doors were impossible to open. The officers decided to muscle the car on its side to help them reach the occupant. When they did, what they saw shocked them.

The woman in the driver’s seat was clearly deceased. And had been for some time. The officers were confused. Who had called for help?

Then Beddoes looked in the back seat. An unconscious infant hung in the car seat in the back of the car. The men scrambled to free her. She required CPR at the scene. Even at the hospital her condition was dire. But after a time in the hospital she healed. She has no lasting effects from the accident that claimed her mother.

‘We Were Guided’

The car had been in the river for fourteen hours. The four officers who heard the voice that day came to the same conclusion. “We realized that it’s not adding up,” said Beddoes. If they hadn’t heard the voice, they wouldn’t have looked for anyone else in the car, and the baby — a girl named Lily — would have died.

“We were guided that day,” he said. “We were on different levels spiritually, but we knew there was only one explanation.”

The experience revived his faith. He returned to church with his family. His faith in God’s intervention in everyday life is strong. “It kind of turned everything around. I was at a point where I didn’t think God intervened. It changed my outlook on the way I do things. I now look for teaching moments knowing we were guided.”

Officer Beddoes is the co-author of Proof of Angels.