Believe me when I say that the story needs no enhancement to sound quite amazing. It starts back a week ago Sunday, when I heard Phillip had hurt his knee, and then had also lost his wallet while out hunting. My compassion for him rose to a level that almost had me go out there that afternoon to look for it.
Of course being a Sunday, and having no idea where to start looking, quickly stymied that thought. I knew they would be going out looking for it during the week, but I had in my mind that if it wasn't found, I would go out Saturday morning (a week after it was lost) to see if I could spot it. There were several trips made backtracking the general area where they had been, but it wasn't found.
Later Phillip said that he had really given up hope of seeing it again. I called him on Friday night to see if he may be going out there Saturday so that he could show me the area where they had been. He felt like it was too much trouble, but I insisted that “I just wanted to give it a shot,” and quite honestly, really felt like I might have a chance to find it.
We met out there before daylight and started hiking into the area at first light. It is a very rugged area and "vast" is the word I would use to describe it. It was discouraging to see how much area it covered and how many similar features there were; with much cactus, knee-high grass in areas, stacked rocks of every shape and configuration, etc. Phillip was walking where he "generally" felt they had gone, and I soon realized that to find a wallet in that large of an area would only happen if the Lord led us to it.
We covered what I would estimate to be about 2-1/2 miles before we arrived where the wallet was eventually found. The area was large slabs of rock and boulders stacked on and against each other. Phillip had injured his knee some time before he had arrived at that spot on the day the wallet was lost, and in this area, was sliding down over the rocks to try to reach the wash below. He had also done this at several earlier areas, but we didn't find the wallet at those spots. I was crawling around and looking in the spaces between the rocks in case it had slipped down there. At times I was almost upside down looking in the gaps, but was trying to be thorough.
I was able to clearly see into all of these spaces from some angle or the other since there was light shining between the rocks. Finally, as I was working my way down to the last rocks before you get to the wash below, I saw a relatively small hole. It was different than the other spaces since it was a pocket that had no light shining into it. It was about four-feet deep, but was totally dark. As I said earlier, I wanted to be thorough since this would most likely be the only trip I would make out there.
When I looked into the hole, I just saw darkness. I looked away and then back down in there again a couple of times trying to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness; which is difficult when you're looking from daylight. I was finally able to faintly make out a straight line in the blackness at the bottom.
I still had no idea what it was, if anything, but I felt that it was unusual to see anything straight in all of the irregular shapes. I had a walking stick along, which I had laid down while searching around on the rocks and had Phillip hand it to me since it was near him. I ran the end of it down into the hole with the point next to the line and moved it sideways. When the line moved, I told Phil that there was something down in there, but still couldn't make out what it was. He said he had a light in his backpack and got it out.
When I shined the light down the hole, there was the wallet lying at the bottom! We were only four feet away from it! Phillip looked down at me with a stunned look and was only convinced that it was real after crawling down off the rocks to see for himself. I got another stick and tried to use it and my walking stick like "chopsticks" to get it out, but was unsuccessful. I finally laid over a rock on a fairly steep angle downward and reached my arm into the hole as far as I could.
I couldn't reach it but knew it must be close. I kept working my arm against the side of the rocks to extend my reach until I could touch it with my fingertips; then finally squeeze it between two fingers. Unfortunately I was quite wedged into the hole by then, but was eventually able to extract myself, pulling my arm out with the wallet between my fingertips. It was entirely in tact and was a sight for sore eyes! We had searched for just over 2-1/2 hours and covered a lot of country, both horizontally and vertically, but we were back to the trucks and on our way home by 11:00 with the testimony that God still cares about us in even the smallest matters, and is faithful in answering our prayers. Of course there were a lot of people praying that it would be found; including me.