Michael and Krista Branch had been Christians for a long time. They believed that Jesus was who He said He was, and generally speaking, they trusted Him with their lives. They’d taken the opportunity to go see a new film just released, The Passion of the Christ
Michael describes that experience.
My wife, Krista, and I went to see The Passion opening day, which was a Wednesday Of course we were very moved by it.The things that we saw put a vision in our minds as to what actually happened—which before was left up to our imaginations—and we didn’t know how historically correct we were. We talked about the movie numerous times after we saw it
Saturday I had a conversation with my brother-in-law, and I told him that what really struck me about the movie was what Mary
went through losing her son. And of course the flashback scene when Jesus fell and Mary runs and tells him she’s there, and what it must be like to go through the loss of a child.... Literally that conversation was Saturday night.
Then Sunday morning rolls around...
It began as a typical Sunday morning in the Branch home in Divide, Colorado, just outside Colorado Springs. Two of their three small children were in high chairs, having breakfast. Michael was doing a little work at his computer, and Krista had just put 11-month-old Kenna Beth into the tub for a shower.
In a few moments they would learn something about the reality of their faith. Their whole world was about to change.
We got up this morning like any other Sunday morning. We scurried around the house getting Kalon and Kassidy fed and Krista went up to get Kenna. When she brought her downstairs we saw that she was messy from a runny nose, and so I suggested to Krista that she give Kenna a shower Krista took her in the bathroom and put her in the bathtub. We usually unscrew the stopper from the tub and all three kids play in the shower together In the hurriedness of getting ready we neglected to unscrew the stopper and just pulled it out instead. What Krista didn’t see was that Kenna had sat on the stopper and pushed it down so that the tub was slowly filling with water
I put her in there and washed her all off. I was headed for the towels, and I was about to get her out when she started playing so hard.. .she was having such a good time.
I was looking for a website, and I thought Krista could help me, so I yelled for her to come in here and help me for a minute.
Our computer was acting up and not accessing the website we were looking for, so I stayed for a little bit to try and figure out what the problem was. And of course I was listening to Kenna Beth the whole time...periodically I would go back and make sure she was still playing, make sure she wasn’t ready to get out. I was out of the bathroom for perhaps four minutes.
Then I went to the bathroom door and saw water Immediately my heart sank and I thought, "Oh, no!" I ran to the shower and yanked the curtain back and saw her floating face down. I was certain she was dead. I started panicking.
As you can imagine, Krista screamed hysterically and I knew immediately something was very, very wrong. I jumped up out of my chair and ran in there. As I was hurrying into the bedroom, Krista met me at the door holding Kenna out-face-first to me. I grabbed her at arm's length and held her there for a second, trying to process, you know.
Michael grabbed her from me and put her on the bed. I guess from being in the position she was...head hanging down, her mouth had been open in the water Now her mouth had closed, but her tongue was still sticking out a bit over her bottom lip. She didn’t look like my daughter She just looked very different. I was pretty much sure she was dead. She was gray.. .didn’t have any color at all. Not purple, not blue. Just gray. She looked like a corpse.
Teller County 91 I .Where is your emergency?
(hysterical)
Ah...my ba-...my...my...
Take a deep breath and tell me what's going on.
Oh my God. My baby...
Your baby's what?
She’s...she...she's...she was taking a bath. She’s not breathing. She’s all blue.
Okay, get her to the floor.
(yelling)
Get her to the floor!
I’m going to tell you what to do, okay?
What I first heard was that a 91 I call was coming over a scanner I heard the officers receive the call...and overheard that there and unconscious.
Kenna felt like rubber There was no life in her From the moment I touched her call it a spiritual thing or whatever; I knew she was not in her body...she was gone.
There were no words to express what I was feeling at that moment. There were no words to pray that expressed to God the horror I was experiencing and the fear I was battling against
From the second I got her I was hearing "It's hopeless,” "Prepare for the funeral,” and "You're going to be the father of two children now.” Maybe if I had heard only one thing I would have bought it. If it had been more subtle.. .but because it was a barrage of lies,
I wanted to say, "How dare you come into my home and try to steal my family?” It was so undeniably in my face that this was an attack, that this was not of God.
I began to groan uncontrollably.. .1 was raised Baptist, so there were not a whole lot of tongue-talkers in my family, but I truly believe this was a case of my spirit groaning in words I could not express, could not pray in my own intellect.
I realized right away that this was an attack of Satan. And it... it wasn't...it didn’t have to be this way.Yes, there was fault on my wife’s and my part, but literally the thief came into my house to steal, kill, and destroy that morning. This is where The Passion comes in. I began to have visions—as Krista did—of the flogging scene— so vividly in my mind.
was a baby involved
The Scripture “by His stripes we are healed 1 ’ continued to run through my mind... “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.’’
Satan was trying to steal our peace; he was trying to destroy our lives; he was trying to steal our daughter away from us and kill every dream or aspiration for her that we have. In that one act, he was trying to utterly destroy us. So that Scripture and those scenes from the movie kept coming to my mind over and over again, the flogging scene...“by His stripes we are healed.”
God was saying, “You don't have to take the punishment.” By those stripes we have the authority to take back what was ours. I kept having visions of Jesus holding our baby and bringing her back to us. And I began to yell, “You are not going to steal my daughter You are not going to steal my daughter"
I too just knew that it was not her time to go, that Jesus had already healed her So I thanked Him for it.
Her belief in this truth is heard on the 911 call:
Thank You, Jesus.Thank You, Jesus.Thank You, Jesus...
Okay, I want you to get her to the floor...
In a drowning victim, brain damage will usually occur after four to six minutes. After that, the potential for serious brain damage greatly increases with each passing minute. It is estimated that Kenna Beth Branch was without oxygen for eight to ten minutes—or more.
Detective Kerr, who’d heard the call on his radio, raced to the Branch home. He was the first to arrive.
When I looked at the baby, she didn’t have any color. I don't know how long she had been without oxygen. She was unconscious. She was very typical of a dead body.
While Kerr and other deputies who’d arrived were attempting to revive Kenna Beth, paramedics had been dispatched and were on the way.
Erin Ewers, a father, is a paramedic had had responded to many emergencies regarding children. They were his most difficult cases.
It’s a call that no paramedic wants to get. A child down, not breathing, CPR in progress.
That’s really scary stuff, especially when you have kids of your own. Once we got there, the child looked really gray.. .initially really unresponsive. It was not looking good.
The paramedics continued CPR on little Kenna Beth, not expecting much. There was great fear that she was indeed dead, and if revived, would have serious brain damage.
My primary concern once we got her in the ambulance and on oxygen was whether there was going to be some damage to this baby.
They put Kenna Beth in the ambulance and then sped to a nearby schoolyard where a Flight for Life helicopter was waiting to airlift her down the mountain to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs.
Michael then picked up the phone and made another call.
It’s one of those phone calls you never want to get. But the phone rang, and when I answered it, Michael said, "Dad, I need you.”
I knew from the tone of his voice something terrible had happened. I asked him, "What’s wrong?"
He said, "Kenna Beth drowned in the shower”
Paramedics continued to work on the baby, performing CPR and working to insert an IV. They had little hope.
But they were unaware that a power far greater than them was at work in that ambulance.
Michael and Krista had desperately cried out to God to reach into the most dire circumstance a parent can face. They had no other place to turn and believed with all their hearts that the price Jesus paid in dying for them was enough to bring their little girl back.
God heard their plea.
For some reason she came back really quickly with a little bit of resuscitation. She started to let us know how much she did not approve of us trying to start an IV on hen It actually turned out really well.
Five minutes later the doctor came in and said the CT scan came back normal. He kept saying,‘‘You’re lucky. You're lucky. You don’t know how lucky you are” as if he was confused that she was doing so well! I don’t believe in luck. I believe the Lord brought her back.
People were praying, and so I think that was what really saved hen I leaned over Kenna and whispered in her ear, "Daddy loves you.. .you’re going to be okay. Daddy loves you.”
Kenna Beth woke up...looked at my son and said,"Dada,”and smiled...and at that point he knew he had his little girl back.
Well, they’re extremely lucky. To have the opportunity to see them get their girl back was a real thrill for all of us.
These kind of miracles take place often. We sometimes don’t attribute them to be miracles, but this was the work of God— there’s no doubt about that.
There have been no aftereffects. Kenna’s perfect—better than ever. She’s literally a different baby in a good way. The smiling, the messing around with Mommy and Daddy. She's a lot more personable. It’s really strange! It seems as though she’s happier
I hate to think there could have been a different outcome, but because The Passion of the Christ was so fresh in our minds, and because of the scenes we saw, the love we saw portrayed in the movie even in the flogging and crucifixion, was so fresh in our hearts, that when this happened, we believed in our minds and hearts that this was an attack and was not suppose to happen.. .that Jesus already paid this price, and Kenna didn't have to pay it; we didn't have to pay it.
Had this happened a week before I'd seen the movie, I would not have been so on edge and ready to defend my family spiritually. I guess a good way to describe it is how September I I heightened our awareness of the possibility of terrorist attacks. After I saw this movie, it heightened my awareness of the unimaginable love God has for us—that He'd go through such torment—and it heightened my awareness of the tactics of Satan and attacks of Satan—-that he wants to steal, kill, and destroy.
I could have accepted that my daughter was dead, and it would have been a done deal. But in that heightened awareness we recognized the attack and acknowledged that Jesus paid the price. He raised her from the dead. I know she was dead. No doubt in my mind.
Jesus suffered for this very reason, for such a time as this. I don't know what would have been going through my mind if I had not seen the movie. I wouldn't have had such a confidence in Jesus. That was something that I had personally been dealing with. I'd never really experienced Jesus. I was raised in Christian home and saved at age five. I knew how to act, I knew how to serve Jesus, but He’s never been so real to me. The Passion of the Christ made you think about the price He really paid. I don't think I would have been so confident about praying for Kenna if I had not had those images in my mind.
Through tear-filled eyes, Kenna’s grandfather sums it up beautifully. “We know that God gave our little girl back to us. I haven’t heard anyone put it any better than my daughter when she said that the angels took Kenna Beth and hugged her.. .and then gave her back.”
He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
ISAIAH 53:5 NKJV
The reality is that we are all living in the middle of the war zone of good versus evil. The Passion brought that realization home. Watching Satan walk among the crowds made me really aware of the fact that he walks among us every day while trying to separate us from Christ. He does a good job, too, if we let him catch us off guard.
Tina—Riverton, Wyoming
We have been Christians for many years and have seen many miracles that have occurred with changed lives and had healings, but we were not prepared or expecting the Lord to heal my ankle when we went into the movie.
For three days an ankle which I had broken years back was giving out on me. I am 63 years old. I had taken out my crutches and needed them to walk. I couldn’t put any weight on it or I would fall. I went out during the movie for a restroom break. I needed the crutches to get out. Coming back I thought, “I can walk. There’s not anything wrong with my ankle.” I knew right away that God had made it well. I carried the crutches back. My wife gave me a strange look, took the crutches, put them against the wall, and finished watching the movie. We thanked the Lord afterward as we walked out. I know that the Lord is our Savior, provider, healer, friend, and more.
—Internet submission
I was diagnosed with lung cancer about five months ago. My sister and I went to the movie theater and saw The Passion together before my surgery, and we were forever changed. My surgery was the following Friday, and our pastor came to pray with us before they wheeled me into the operating room. Two hours later, the surgeon told my family that there was no cancer anywhere inside me! Seeing The Passion of the Christ set off a chain of events that led to my sister’s and my salvation, and a miracle of God...praise the Lord.
—Milton, Ohio
What I wasn’t prepared for was watching Jesus through Mary’s eyes. You see, my precious son Michael and his fiancee, Patricia, were killed when a drunk driver crushed them in their car two years ago.
Having a chance to see much from Mary’s view broke my heart as I thought about losing Michael. Mary’s helplessness to protect her child from His death was overwhelming... especially when she ran to Jesus as He fell under the burden of the cross.. .and the flashback.. .so powerful. When she kissed His feet on the cross.. .that was heart wrenching. The last thing I did before leaving Michael’s body in the stark and cold emergency room was hold his feet...what mother doesn’t long to hold and caress her baby’s precious feet?
Mary and I and every mother who has lost a child is left with only one healing choice. Trusting the Lord and the promises He has given us to stand upon to give us the strength we
desperately need to move forward, to accept God’s will, and to trust His purpose when we cannot understand.
After the credits rolled I could not leave my seat. Stunned, I could only say, “Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus.”
—Internet submission
Having watched this film will forever change the way I relate to and read the Gospel accounts. I could not help but be drawn to read them that night. I had an intense new appreciation for that time in history, the way I could relate to Jesus’ humanity from the way He chose to suffer and bear the penalty for our sin. I have been overwhelmed with gratitude.
Seeing those 12 hours come alive has still left me speechless. Jesus modeled the most amazing love and grace during His Passion. What a demonstration, what a vivid reminder we will have to help us remember the cost for our redemption.
Linda—Warrington, Pennsylvania
One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.
Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgivenor to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
luke 5:17-26
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