Chretien: A Real Canadian Hero

                              Image via Wikipedia

Rita Chretien is a real Canadian hero. (Who did you think I meant?!)

In an incredible tale of survival that has drawn international attention, Ms. Chretien, 56, was rescued on Friday after 49 days in the wilderness living on nothing more than melted snow, water from a nearby stream, trail mix and candy....

What really kept her alive was her faith and her refusal to give up, her son Raymond said Sunday.

“She’s a Christian and she reads her Bible every day, and she had books she was reading and she had time to think and pray and just prepare for whichever outcome that was going to come,” he said.

“She didn’t know what it was, but she was prepared, and she had a very clear indication that there would be something on Friday, whether it was to go home to be with her saviour or to be rescued, and it was to be rescued,” he said.

Dr. James Westberry, the attending physician, said it was extremely rare for a person to go so long without food. It was understandable to call her recovery a miracle, he said. “It is very unusual that a person would survive this type of ordeal, let alone be doing this well at this time,” he said....

“She didn’t give up,” he said.

Her strong religious faith was also a factor, he added. “I’m so thankful she had the spiritual basis to get through this – what others would see as insurmountable odds,” he said.

I like her story of courage and strong Christian faith, a story of enduring, as seeing Him who is invisible".  The Christian faith is full of such apparent paradoxes, of being blind, and yet seeing, of seeing, and yet being blind -- "to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Well, to Rita Chretien for one, apparently.

Being Canadian, she'll probably just go back to quietly her quiet life; if she were American, she would a) write a book and b) make the morning talk show rounds.