A Glimmer in the Dark

On May 12, 2008, during an ordinary afternoon, young dance teacher Liao Zhi was enjoying a rare day off. Watching her toddler daughter stumbling around in her baby walker, Liao Zhi’s eyes filled with tender affection, aware of the deep happiness she felt in her heart. Suddenly, the television before her began shaking violently. Before she could steady it, the entire four-story building collapsed around her.

In that life-and-death moment, Liao Zhi instinctively shielded her daughter and mother-in-law with her body. Trapped in the dark rubble, she called out desperately for her loved ones, only to be met with suffocating silence. The relentless falling slabs of concrete had mercilessly taken away everything she cherished most—her beloved family!

The excruciating pain from the steel bar piercing her right leg paled in comparison to the heart-wrenching realization that her family was gone. Her precious child who brought her so much happiness was dead! When rescuers’ shouts and her father’s anxious calls penetrated through the debris, Liao Zhi chose silence. With both her legs missing, and her family gone, despair extinguished her will to live. She would rather remain buried there forever than face a shattered future.

However, her father’s hoarse yet determined cries struck at her heart again and again. “Liao Zhi! Liao Zhi!“ The calls pierced through the haze of death, awakening her conscience. She suddenly realized how her cowardly wish to abandon life would devastate her aging parents. At that critical moment between life and death, filial duty overcame the impulse to escape. “Dad, I’m here!“ she responded with her last ounce of strength. This faint cry was not just a promise to live, but also a daughter’s deepest expression of love for her parents. Beneath the ruins, Liao Zhi chose spiritual rebirth over despair.

After being urgently transported to the hospital by rescuers, Liao Zhi faced not just the emotional trauma of losing her family but also having to live with a disabled body. Doctors told her both legs had to be amputated immediately, or the septic blood would cause organ failure and death. When the anesthesia wore off, Liao Zhi stared blankly at her heavily bandaged legs—confused and wondering what meaning a life like this held.

During many sleepless nights, thoughts of enduring strange looks, facing life’s hardships, and never dancing freely again made silent tears stream down Liao Zhi’s face. Friends and fellow patients brought many inspirational books, hoping to help her find direction, but words seemed powerless to fill the void in her heart. So, deciding to combat despair with action, over time she began participating in charity work, keeping herself busy, hoping to find new purpose through giving.

An Encounter Beneath the Cross

During months of rehabilitation, Liao Zhi returned to the stage to perform an inspirational drum dance. Sitting atop the drum, she moved her arms with all her remaining strength, her posture still graceful and resilient. When the hometown folks saw her dancing with such brilliance despite having no legs, they were deeply moved. Many traveled specially from Deyang to her Chongqing hospital just to tell her: “Teacher Liao, you must come home and perform for us again! We need your inspiration!” Facing their hopeful expectations, Liao Zhi nodded solemnly in promise.

Soon after returning to devastated Deyang, fate (or Someone) arranged an unexpected encounter. She met a group of strangers who would bring the most important turning point in her life. Canadian volunteers had crossed mountains and oceans to participate in disaster relief at Deyang. Meeting wheelchair-bound Liao Zhi, they showed neither pity nor strange looks. They knelt naturally to speak with her at eye level. This long-lost respect and sincerity, like warm sunlight, quietly melted the frozen knots in Liao Zhi’s heart.

During conversations with this group, Liao Zhi suddenly remembered a line from her study in elementary school: “Love is patient, love is kind.“ She recalled that it came from the Bible. Noticing the crosses around their necks, a thought flashed through her mind: Perhaps these are angels sent by God to help me!

At parting, the volunteers not only left Bibles and contact information, but made a heartfelt promise to return to China in a year to take her to Canada for specialized prosthetics. Liao Zhi thought to herself that they surely were too busy with relief work to remember her later. Yet, a year later, they found her through the Disabled Persons’ Federation and brought her from her hometown to Canada for prosthetic legs. During her stay, Liao Zhi lived with the volunteers who cared for her tenderly and brought her to Sunday church services. Though she had heard of the Bible and God as a child, she knew little about Christianity. Living with them, she discovered how deeply she longed for the love, peace, and joy they had. When she asked how to become a Christian, they said: “The Bible tells us that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for our sin, and when we believe in Him, He becomes our Savior and gives us eternal life—a life that is filled with joy and peace. Liao Zhi replied joyfully, “Yes, I believe!”

The trip to Canada gave Liao Zhi not just functional prosthetics, but a new identity. She was a child of God! Looking back, she feels no despair about her experiences, only overflowing gratitude. She increasingly realizes, as the Bible says, that though she “walked through the valley of the shadow of death,“ God’s love never left her. Though her trials were great, God’s grace was greater! His plan for her life far exceeded her wildest dreams.

After losing her family, Liao Zhi relied on God’s grace to emerge from darkness step by step—from adapting to prosthetics to mastering walking and dancing again. Through TV appearances, people came to know Liao Zhi as a talented dancer and were inspired by her courage. While comforted by others, Liao Zhi still privately grieved the loss of her family and not having a life partner by her side, especially when she saw couples smiling at each other after her performances. When she confessed her loneliness to Christian friends, they surrounded her like clouds of witnesses, comforting her and teaching her about prayer’s power. They even prayed specifically for God to prepare a tall, handsome, strong, well-educated, Christian partner who could help adjust her prosthetics! Liao Zhi laughed at such a perfectly impossible request, but her friend said seriously: “Liao Zhi, your faith is too small. If I care for you this much, how much more does our Heavenly Father love you?“ This revelation struck Liao Zhi deeply. In her loneliness, she had relied on her own strength, forgetting God’s constant care. From then on, she determined to wait patiently for God’s perfect timing.

A Tailor-Made Miracle

With renewed faith, Liao Zhi was up to facing a new challenge: a dance competition! Before the finals, staff suggested getting dance-friendly prosthetics. Remembering a Christian friend’s recommendation, she visited a prosthetic company’s Shanghai branch where she met Charles, a handsome and kind technician, newly arrived from America. Their shared faith made collaboration smooth. Later, she noticed him quietly attending her speeches. Though briefly wondering if he liked her, she dismissed the thought. Months later over dinner, Charles confessed that he had been moved by her warmth and resilience since their first meeting. What seemed amazing was that this Taiwanese American man had chosen prosthetics as his career in 2008—the year of the earthquake—and came to Shanghai in 2013, the exact time of Liao Zhi’s dance competition. He perfectly matched every detail of her friends’ prayers! They marveled at God’s perfect timing—how God had been preparing them separately before their paths crossed. A year later, Liao Zhi and Charles were married in a simple church ceremony, holding hands with tears of joy.

Soon, two babies filled their home with laughter. God not only blessed their family but began using their story to bless others. Seeing many disabled people struggling with poor prosthetics, they launched charity projects. One three-year-old boy refused prosthetics until—with patient training and prayers—he not only wore them but began playing soccer and riding bikes, restoring his smile to the joy of his family!

Reflecting on her journey, Liao Zhi overflows with gratitude—from the ruins of Deyang to national dancing competition stages, from losing her beloved daughter to building a family of four, Liao Zhi’s life journey echoes the profound truth in the Book of Job: true redemption lies not in avoiding suffering, but in encountering God through it. Her story poses the ultimate question to us all: When fate strips away everything we depend on, can we still believe that life can recover—much like nerve endings regenerate after an amputation to rediscover sensation in seemingly impossible places? This inspiring lady, who dances the dance of life on prosthetic legs, has answered with a resounding YES!—proving that, in the providence of God, there are no winters that cannot be overcome, and no springs that will fail to arrive. In God’s hands, a broken life can become a vessel of God’s love—transforming suffering into blessing!

Cindy Yang is a preschool teacher and freelance Christian writer in Seattle, Washington. She is also a member of the news broadcasting ministry at Bread of Life Church in Seattle.