A Miracle for Jen
- Maggie Wallem Rowe
- Sep 8
- 4 min read
If joy has many colors, how do you see beyond the darkest shades when the unthinkable occurs?
AUDIO LETTER
That “Choose Joy” pendant I’m wearing? Let me tell you about the girl who made it.
It happened on a crisp Sunday evening in autumn.
My friend Jennifer—a vibrant, outgoing teenager at the time—was performing in a youth choir that night at her local church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Her mom, dad, and younger brother Josh came to hear her. Jen loved singing and, above all, talking with God. Prayer was her second language, one in which she was fluent.
As the Barrick family drove home from the concert, an inebriated driver traveling over 80 mph swerved into their lane. He had failed to turn his headlights on. There was no time to avoid the metal missile or even cry out, “Jesus, help us!
The family’s van crumpled like a beer can discarded on the side of the road. When first responders arrived to pry apart the wreckage and extricate the bodies, they were astonished to discover all four family members still alive, yet so badly injured they were taken to four different trauma centers.
In the weeks to come, parents Andy and Linda and brother Josh recovered slowly, but it was Jen who had suffered the most life-threatening injuries. The medical team attending feared she wouldn’t even survive the night.
Yet despite severe traumatic brain injury and multiple skull fractures, Jen continued to breath. She would remain in a coma for five weeks.
Little-by-little, Jen regained consciousness as she emerged from comatose darkness. She regained her ability to speak, although her language was as incoherent and fractured as her body. Jen no longer knew the names of family members, where she lived, or how to add 2 +2. Her past was lost—her present a moment-by-moment struggle to live again.
And then came the miracle.
One morning while struggling to speak, Jen heard the strains of a worship song playing in her room. Her expression altered, brightened. To the amazement of the nurses present, Jen sang the words to the praise music flawlessly. And she began to pray aloud, talking to God as clearly as if she could see him standing beside her in the hospital room.
The girl who could barely speak—whose memory had been wiped clean by trauma—had not lost her spiritual fluency—the language of prayer and praise.
As her mother, Linda, said later, “Everyone—even the doctors—knew that it was God at work. There was no other explanation. God was whispering HOPE in Jen’s ear.”
Nearly five years after the accident, I accompanied Linda and Jen on a trip to New York City. Linda had just written a book, Miracle for Jen, and as their media representative I had booked them for an interview on NBC’s Today Show.
Although Jen was legally blind and suffered from chronic pain and fatigue, the radiance of her relationship with God lit up the airwaves on each network that shared her story. As I traveled with the Barricks, I was humbled to be in their presence.
It’s been 17 years now since the head-on collision that could have taken the lives of all the Barricks. In the intervening years, thousands around the country have asked Jen to pray for them at speaking engagements. Joni Eareckson Tada regularly asks Jen to intercede for her ministry to the disabled.
So…that “Choose Joy” pendant I’m wearing in the photo? Jen made that.
When I wear it, I’m reminded that joy is a product of hope, not despair. Confidence in a God we can trust, not in our own fickle emotions.
After reading my first letter in this series last week, my husband’s younger brother Pete sent the following comment, which I share with his permission.
“Let me tell you what 'joy' means to me. About a decade ago, I chose Romans 15:13 as my theme verse and it has stayed with me ever since: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
“My life journey was dark back then—I had recently lost close loved ones and my job of 18 years. I was facing a lot of uncertainty, and my prayers were desperate cries for God to give me hope ... because I wasn't seeing any.
“That is when He revealed that verse to me, and I realized that the 'ingredients' of hope are joy and peace. So I changed my prayer to ask God to help me see the joy and peace that He brings into my life every day.”
Like Jen, my beloved brother-in-law intentionally chooses joy every day.
Whatever shades this season brings—bright or shadowed—I’m determined to do the same.
Are you with me on the journey? Let’s seize the colors of joy this fall, friends.
And let’s do it ASAP.
So much love,
Maggie
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The winners of our September “First Friday” giveaway are. . . (drumroll, please) —
What the River Keeps: Mary-Ellen Soucy
Lord, I Believe: Lynn Crabb
(If you weren’t the winner this time, I hope you’ll gift yourself with one of these wonderful new titles!)