The lone survivor of a terrible shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island feeling isolated, destitute and totally alone.  Thankfully though, despite all his mishaps and bad fortune, he still retained a glimmer of hope and a healthy dose of faith in the lord almighty.  So much so that he quickly got on his knees and prayed for GOD to come to his rescue and show him the way back safely home.

Expectantly; he then awoke each morning in the hope of looking out to sea to find a huge ship that would take him back home to his friends and family and diminish all sense of his current hopelessness.  Alas though, after many weeks no ship was ever sighted.

Quickly realizing that he might be on the island for quite some time before God got around to answering his prayers, he quickly set about building a hut from driftwood to protect him from the elements as well as storing what few possessions he had managed to salvage from the shipwreck that had brought him there in the first place.

Imagine then, his utter dismay when he came back one day from scavenging food only to find his humble hut in a blaze of flames and smoke. In tears he fell on his knees and shouted out in anger at God:-

"Why have you done this to me when I have shown you nothing but faith?"

Through sobs he continued: "Why have you abandoned me alone and hungry to die alone on this deserted island?"

His energy all but gone, and his faith depleted, he then curled up in a ball and fell fast asleep.  He wasn't exactly sure how long he had slept when he was awoken but the sound of a ship quickly approaching the island ready to rescue him when he was most in need of it.

"But how did you know I was here?" he asked his rescuers in utter disbelief.

"We saw your smoke signal," they happily replied. "You're one very lucky man as we normally never even sail close to this island."

The moral of the story:

It's easy to get discouraged when things in our life are not going as well as we'd like for them to go; but that never means we should ever lose heart.  God is ALWAYS at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain, depression, persecution and seemingly senseless suffering.  Remember that the next time your own humble hut is burning to the ground.

It just might be the smoke signal that summons the grace of God when it is needed most.  Miracles really do happen!