I knew she was dead

My extended family is very interested in genealogy. They have been scouring old cemeteries looking for the grave sites of all of our long lost relatives with good success for several years. They have come to use a tool called a “Dowsing rod” to locate the buried bodies of unmarked graves at the old cemeteries. This device has two handles on it and wires that can turn freely inside its handles and the wire extends out the front about 18 inches. The person doing the “dowsing” walks slowly around the cemetery holding a handle in each hand with the wire extended horizontally straight out in front of them. When it passes directly over a buried person, the long wire extending out from the handles suddenly bends down.

My cousin was telling me about their use of the “Dowsing rod” and how well it works and my response was, “Yeah right”. He seemed to be an otherwise intelligent and smart person, and undeniably he had a long successful career as an engineer in the oil industry and later as an administrator of several very large hospitals. He insisted that dowsing works and told me that initially he was just as skeptical as me. I looked at him with pity. Surely he had been in the sun too long, or maybe dementia was setting in.

He said he had a dowsing rod and I could check it out for myself. He went on to tell me that not only does it work on bodies, but it will bend down when it passes over water too. He allowed me to try it. The first thing I looked for was whether or not I could “make” the wires bend down by squeezing the handles or otherwise bend my hands forward and make the wire bend down and manipulate its behavior. To my surprise and delight, I discovered that I could not manually make the wire bend down, because the wires turn freely inside the thick metal handles. This would be a fair test.

I walked around his yard and the wire was horizontal with the ground. Sure enough when I crossed the exact place on his lawn where he said a water pipe was buried, the wire bent down dramatically.

Hmmm. I scanned the premises and noticed that everyone at the reunion was under a porch area sitting around in rocking chairs talking. I walked up behind my wife who was chattering away non-stop like a magpie and I held the dowsing rod directly over her head and suddenly the wires bent straight down. I excitedly and loudly exclaimed to my cousin, “I knew it! She is deader than a doornail. I have been saying that for 39 years”. He laughingly told me that it worked on live people too.

I found all of this to be quite fascinating. He showed me several articles on it and one in particular about some lady who is the “dowsing” guru of the genealogy scene and has gone with them to several cemeteries with great success. Through the years skeptics have challenged her skill with the dowsing rod and even exhumed bodies. She has been uncanny in her accuracy in locating bodies.

I actually used this thing and held it in my own hands and saw it work with my own eyes, before I would believe that it worked. I do not understand the science of it, nor the physics, but I can tell you in all honesty that it works. (I know, I know You are skeptical So was I, my friends, so was I.)

All of this made me think of Thomas, the doubting Apostle. Thomas had seen Jesus walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead, make the blind see, and miraculously feed the multitudes, but when the other Apostles told him that He had arisen and appeared to them just as Jesus had predicted, he stubbornly refused to believe. He would not believe until he actually saw Jesus with his own eyes and put his hand in His side where the Roman spear had pierced him and he could feel the nail holes in His hands.

Thomas believed after being with Jesus and verifying. Billions of others around the world who have only heard about the resurrection of Jesus must believe without actually seeing Him as Thomas did. Jesus said that those of us who have not seen and yet have believed are blessed.

Do you believe in my dowsing experience? Hmmm I imagine most would want to find out more about it. In a similar vein, I hope and pray that if you still have doubts about Jesus that you will open your Bibles and begin that study today. Jesus will enhance your faith, open your eyes and your hearts if you actively seek Him. There is far more evidence about Jesus saying that He is who He said He is than evidence to support my dowsing experience. Nonetheless my story is true too. Keep the faith my friends and have a great day…

John 20:29
Jesus said to him, “Thomas because
you have seen Me, you have
believed. Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have
believed.