Father and Son Are Able to Survive Night in the Utah Wilderness After Finding a Backpack

You won’t believe how a father and son are able to survive a night in the Utah wilderness after finding a backpack. It’s one thing to get lost. It’s another to be lost in the wilderness overnight, the cold creeping in, shadows stretching long, your heart pounding with the weight of what-ifs. And when Julian Hernandez and his son realized the sun had slipped behind the cliffs of southern Utah, they knew—this was serious. No extra layers. No food. No water. Just the long hours of waiting and wondering if help would come in time.

Julian wasn’t panicked, but he knew they weren’t prepared. “The first thing that came to my mind was to find shelter,” he said.

Levi Lost His Backpack

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But God? God was already ahead of them.

Months earlier, a fifteen-year-old named Levi Dittman had packed a backpack. Not just any backpack—his survival pack. Pop-Tarts. A Tent. First aid. Emergency supplies. The kind of things you pack when you’re young and determined, thinking you’ll be the one to handle anything that comes your way. Until the trail betrayed him. Until he found himself stranded overnight, clutching to a ledge, throwing that same carefully packed backpack down below. Until he was rescued—but the backpack was left behind, forgotten.

Forgotten by Levi. But not by God.

Weeks later, Julian and his son weren’t just lost; they were led. They were led to a green backpack sitting just where it needed to be—a backpack stuffed with provision, stocked with grace, and bursting with mercy at just the right moment.

Julian and His Son Found the Backpack

“The moment we found the backpack—it was lovely,” Julian recalled, the relief thick in his voice.

 A miracle in the shape of Pop-Tarts and a water jug.

“We found some food in there, so that kept us pretty well,” he said. “Also, he had a water jug. It kept us pretty well into the morning.”

Some call it a coincidence. Others call it luck. But Levi’s mom, Gretchen? She calls it what it is.

“You really have to have faith that God’s working,” she said. “Sometimes He’s using a backpack that sat for a month and a half for some guy that needed help in that moment—in the dark and cold. This is a God… fingerprint, you know? It was just really cool.”

God Goes Before Us

Because this is what God does. He goes before us. He takes what’s been lost and turns it into provision. He leaves fingerprints on forgotten things, so when we stumble in the dark, we find His grace waiting there. We find Him waiting there.

And if God can do that with a backpack, just imagine what He’s doing in the places where you feel lost, stranded, and unsure. The provision is already there. The rescue is already coming. God is always, always ahead of us.

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Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

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h/t: KXAN News

Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABC4 Utah

Heather Riggleman is a believer, wife, mom, author, social media consultant, and full-time writer. She lives in Minden, Nebraska with her kids, high school sweetheart, and three cats who are her entourage around the homestead. She is a former award-winning journalist with over 2,000 articles published. She is full of grace and grit, raw honesty, and truly believes tacos can solve just about any situation. You can find her on GodUpdates, iBelieve, Crosswalk, Hello Darling, Focus On The Family, and in Brio Magazine. Connect with her at www.HeatherRiggleman.com or on Facebook.