The Year in Miracles

When do chance, luck, and probabilities yield to providence. . .

On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with Secret Service and state police standing guard. Despite the heavy security, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 years old and with no tactical experience, gained access to a rooftop with a clear line of sight to the stage. Crooks got off eight shots, one hitting Trump in the ear. Had the former president not suddenly turned his head toward a chart he would surely have been killed, so it’s not a stretch to call this a miracle. Consider also the events of August 31, 2024.

San Francisco 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall, the team’s first-round draft choice, was shopping near the city’s Union Square when a man demanded his watch. Pearsall wasn’t giving it up and in the ensuing struggle the assailant shot Pearsall in the chest. The bullet passed through his body hitting no vital organs, and Pearsall was able to walk to the ambulance. If that doesn’t qualify as a miracle it’s hard to imagine what might, but questions remain.

The shooter was described as a 17-year-old high school student from Tracy, California, some 70 miles away, but in a video the attacker looks like a full-grown man. The shooter’s name and booking photo were not released and in court a woman described as the shooter’s mother needed a Spanish interpreter. Members of Pearsall’s family, who were also in court, have a right to wonder if the shooter is legally present in the United States. As they should know, California’s sanctuary law protects criminal illegals from deportation.

News stories on the case ground to a halt in September and the shooter has yet to be identified. In similar style, government hearings on the July 13 assassination attempt have provided little if any background on Crooks and his connections. Days before the Butler rally, Joe Biden said it was “time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye,” but after the assassination attempt called the remark a “mistake.” For coincidence theorists there was nothing to it, and that same month Biden stepped aside for Kamala Harris.

On September 15, Ryan Wesley Routh set up a sniper’s nest at a Florida golf course where Trump was playing but was discovered before he could get off a shot. That makes two assassination attempts Trump has survived, and on November 5 he defeated the California Democrat with the greatest of ease.

Ricky Pearsall, who runs the 40 in 4.41 seconds and boasts a vertical leap of 42 inches, missed the entire pre-season and several regular season games. The 49er wideout is back in stride and in Monday’s loss to the Detroit Lions made eight catches for 141 yards and one touchdown. Maybe someday Ricky will grab a “hail Mary” pass in the Super Bowl, but it will be hard to surpass the miracle of August 31. To both survivors, all best in 2025 and beyond.