Sometimes it seems like the news is all bad. Day after day, we see infuriating headlines about woke corporations, transgender bullying of normal people, Judeo-Christian values mocked and flouted, natural disasters, and mass shootings. It is well to pause and reflect that there are still good things in the world. Granted, such stories seem few and far between, but I like to look for such hidden gems. Yesterday, I found a beauty.

A month ago, a plane crash in Colombia claimed the lives of pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, and Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, the mother of four children. When the downed plane was located in the jungle, the four children who had been traveling with their mother were nowhere to be found. Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13; Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9; Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4; and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy were lost in the jungle.

Image from the Columbian military.

An immediate search began with more than a hundred Colombian special forces troops and 70 indigenous scouts. They combed the jungle for weeks, finding footprints, as well as a dirty diaper and a bottle, but no children. The oldest child, Lesly, had some previous experience in the jungle. However, as time went on, it was feared the children had perished.

Those fears proved groundless when all four children were found alive. They were gaunt after a month of wandering, but they were unharmed. These children survived a plane crash that killed their mother, stayed together, supported one another, and finally found their way to safety.

They were taken to a military hospital for medical evaluation and treatment, and will then be returned to their family in Villavicencio. Their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, said, “For us, this situation was like being in the dark, we walked for the sake of walking. Living for the sake of living because the hope of finding them kept us alive. When we found the children we felt joy, we don’t know what to do, but we are grateful to God.”

Indeed, this is a miracle that reminds me of the Bible verse Phillipains 4:8. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.