The sun had gone down, and George and Margaret Keller were settling in for a quiet New Year's Eve inside their little brick apartment. The couple, in their 60s, were not expecting company, but about 5 p.m. George heard a soft knock at the front door.
George cracked open the door and was greeted warmly by a teenage girl he did not recognize. She asked, "Is this the Keller household? I have a blessing to deliver to you." George asked her name, but she would not answer. George then asked if she was an angel. Still no response. The visitor handed him a white envelope and said, "We prayed that this would be a blessing to you." George thanked the girl and said, "I hope to see you again so I can know your name." The girl blessed him, turned and disappeared around the corner, and has not been seen since. The gift was a $50 cashier's check. "She smiled the whole time," George says now. "When she walked away we heard nothing. There was no car. We saw nothing."
The surprise visit touched the Kellers, who have struggled emotionally and financially as a result of their son Paul's arrest for arson. Paul is serving a 99-year prison sentence for a five-month arson spree that terrorized Washington state in 1992. The 78 fires claimed three lives and $35 million in property damage, making him the most prolific arsonist in U.S. history. The siege ended when George, suspecting his son of the crimes after reading a suspect profile in the newspaper, alerted police and fire officials. He turned over evidence from his retail advertising business – phone records and gas receipts – to help convict Paul, who worked for his father. The Kellers raised three children in a Christian home and taught them from an early age, "You will never go wrong doing right." Paul's crimes put their father's words to the test, and George never wavered.
NBC Dateline aired a special on the arson spree that became its top-rated program in 1993, and two years later CBS aired a TV movie on the Kellers, "Not Our Son." While the Kellers grieved for the victims, the fallout of Paul's crimes left their own family in ruins. Friends and business clients stopped calling. Even their pastor abandoned them. Within two years the Kellers were forced to sell their business and home in Everett, Wash., and declare bankruptcy. Doing the right thing cost them everything. After the arrest, Paul admitted he had been molested at gunpoint by a volunteer fireman between ages 12-17. Additionally, medical records revealed that Paul nearly bled to death in the hospital nursery shortly after birth, possibly explaining his behavioral disorders. His parents never were told. "The days were so dark that I didn't want to live another minute," George says. "I'd put my Bible on the floor and lay flat on it. When you're hurting so bad you can't think, you can't pray, that's all I could do. I wanted God to know I was serious about believing in Him."
Today Paul is serving the Lord in prison. George has shared his testimony on Oprah, the 700 Club, Focus on the Family, and in churches across the country. Although healing has been a slow journey, George and Margaret continue to draw strength from a daily walk with Jesus Christ. Alisa and I consider the Kellers our family, and we have witnessed God carry them through horrendous trials and trauma. But the Lord has heard every cry and met every need. Today over lunch they told us about the stranger who blessed them on a cold and dreary New Year's Eve. "What it says is the Lord hasn't forgotten us," George reflects. "He says, 'I have My eye on you.' Our God is alive."
Posted by Jeff King at January 30, 2004 02:30 PM