Entertaining Angels

To this day, I have no explanation for what happened.
The children and I were going to church…everyone buckled in.
It was winter and there had been snow the day before.
The roads were plowed…snow packed down…the road salt hadn’t fully melted it yet.

You have to be aware of black ice where the snow had melted.
Black ice is deceitfully slippery.
We were driving down the road, approaching the intersection.
Today, this intersection is a four way stop…back then it had only two stop signs.

As we drove down the road, we passed the house of a family that also went to our church.
They were pulling out of their driveway.
My boys were in the back seat of the mini van.
They turned and waved to the family we knew.

As I continued to approach the intersection, a car was coming on the other side.
I can still see the driver…a man…wearing a parka, sunglasses, gloves.
As he got closer to me, he motioned with his hand to slow down.
Oddly, I was going slow…because of the possible black ice.

Just a gentle movement with his hand to slow down.
That was all!
My oldest daughter was next to me in the front.
I glanced over at her…staring straight ahead…oblivious to the man’s warning.

I slowly approached the intersection and saw that a car in front of me was unable to stop.
It skidded sideways into the intersection.
A car, coming the other direction, barely missed it.

Did you see that? my daughter said.
The car went sideways.

We got to the stop sign and looked across the intersection.
The car that just had the near miss, was turning around to get on its way.

Thank goodness that man warned us! I said gratefully.
What man?
The man in the car…that told us to slow down.
What car?

We sat at the stop sign for a few minutes waiting for the slow moving cars to pass.
Now everyone was interested…wanting to know what I meant.
I told them what happened…about the man…about his warning.

Didn’t you see him, boys? He drove right by us as you were waving out the back window.
We didn’t see any other car, Mom.

Their voices trailed off as I tried to figure this out.
I looked in my rear view mirror. I looked in my side view mirror.
There were no tire tracks on the other side of the road…where the man had driven.

Thoughts were swirling in my head as I thanked God for His protection.
I told the children that God protected us.
We could have been that car going sideways…they all said.

We could have been that car going sideways.
But we weren’t!

The world would say it was luck.
As believers in the Lord Jesus, we know it is not luck…it is not coincidence.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
(Psalm 139:16)

Divine intervention.
Divine protection…until it is time for us to come Home.

Jesus prayed for us…and continues to intercede for us.
Father, protect them by the power of Your name – the name You gave Me – so that they may be one as We are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by the name You gave Me…My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. (John 17:11b,12,15)

I cannot explain what happened that Sunday morning.
What happened to the man in the car?
Why were there no tire tracks on the road after he passed us?
Why didn’t my daughter in the front seat…or my boys in the back seat…see him?

I don’t need empirical evidence to explain.
By faith, I believe that we were divinely protected that day.
The number of our days had not come to pass…yet.

That remembrance encourages me.
God is intimately involved in the lives of His children.
We must acknowledge those Divine Moments and give Him the praise!

The world may roll their eyes and say I am being ridiculous!
I know my Lord Jesus.
He watches over me.

The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
(Psalm 121:5-7)

That is a wonderful promise.
God will watch over me…protect me.
When hard times come, He is right there with me.

I have always loved a quote from Alan Redpath, a British evangelist and pastor.
There is no new circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until first of all, it has gone past God, and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose.

If it hasn’t come…there is a purpose in that, too!

Sovereign Lord…I praise you!