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THE TEST
by Peggy |
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| | More than twenty years ago, I was working the night shift as a registered nurse. It had been a hard night and I was exhausted. It seemed as if I had just fallen into a deep sleep, when the doorbell rang. I stumbled out of bed to the door, I was tired and resented being disturbed. I opened the door to a thin young black child about 12 years old. He had been dropped off with a group of other young people to sell magazines.
| | I snapped, "I am not interested!"
| | He asked " Could I please have a drink of water?"
| | I sharply replied "I don't have time."
| | I slammed the door and went back to bed. When I awakened, I couldn't believe my behavior to that child. I have never been so ashamed of myself. I remember my parents referring to how "we are tested throughout life." I had been given a test and failed miserably.
| | For years I have had a heavy heart and a scar on my soul for the way I treated that little boy. Praying for forgiveness did not ease my burden.
| | In 1998, more than 20 years after I failed one of life's tests, I was living in Florida, working in a position as Director of Nursing of the Emergency Department. However, for the second time in my career, it was becoming apparent that I was being "downsized" out of my job and was expecting to be laid off. Being in my 50's, I was angry and grief stricken over the loss of my job. I decided I would do direct patient care during my last days on the job.
| | One afternoon the medical alert radio sounded and we were informed they were bringing in a man found lying unconscious on the street. I told everyone, "I'll take this one."
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Shortly, the ambulance arrived. The young man on the stretcher was the filthiest human being I had ever seen. His long brown hair and beard were matted and tangled. His clothes were wet from a recent downpour and appeared to have been worn for months. The paramedics reported he was epileptic and had a seizure, causing him to fall and strike his head. As he came around he said his name was Rick.
| | This wild looking young man had the most incredible blue eyes I have ever seen. In a calm and soothing voice, Rick stated he did not have the money to buy his seizure medication. The physician checked him and treatment was started. I asked if he was hungry and he replied he had not eaten in four days. A double portion lunch was ordered. I watched as he ate slowly, chewing his food, savoring every flavor and bite. He displayed impeccable manners, the way he handled his silverware and wiped his mouth with the rough paper napkin. Rick ate every morsel of the food, quietly thanking me.
| | It was time to clean him up. I began peeling the hideous smelly clothes off to give Rick a bath. The staff begged me not to take Rick's shoes off. It's an unwritten rule in the emergency room -- if you don't really need to remove someone's shoes-- DON'T! As I pulled his shoes and socks off I gasped. The thick mud on his feet looked as if he had brown casts on both feet. I thought "Oh, this is going to be a terrible mess."
| | As I soaked the layers of dirt from Rick's feet and started washing them, I was nearly knocked over by an overwhelming thought which surprised me. In my mind I heard a voice say, "there is story about the Lord washing a poor person's feet." I thought to myself "how weird, wonder what made me think of that?"
| | Later, Rick was clean, in fresh clothing and shoes, medications given to take with him and ready for discharge... but, to where? Rick told me his mother lived 60 miles away. I decided the hospital could pay for his cab fare. (The hospital was probably going to lay me off, so I figured if they didn't like it, that was too bad. My hostility was rearing its ugly head again!)
| | I made arrangements for a taxi to take Rick home to his mother. Finally, the clerk announced Rick's ride was waiting so I gathered Rick's belongings, linked arms with him and we walked to the waiting room. I almost fainted when I saw a man in a tuxedo standing there and parked outside was a limousine! I had called a cab! I asked the driver if he was at the right place and he replied, "Oh, yes, ma'am. You must have somebody really special here."
| | I replied, "Yes, I think he is pretty special."
| | Rick turned, softly smiled a beautiful smile with his perfect white teeth and those magnificent blue eyes and in a whisper, he said, "Bless you. I shall never forget what you have done today."
| | As he drove off in the huge limousine, I was both stunned and confused. I went back to my colleagues and explained how Rick had driven away in luxury. They were staring at me as if I had been struck by lightening. Was the limo sent by mistake, or was it by design. And who was Rick? I guess I will never know.
| | Looking back, I firmly believe Rick was an important part of my destiny. Maybe Rick was sent to me to allow me the opportunity to start fresh and renew my journey. Since none of us know when our tests will be given, I am grateful to have had a second chance.
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| | Peggy McConnell-Dobbins
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An Angel Mechanic
by Becky |
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| | I was driving to my sister's in an old car we had with my son. We were in CA at the time and cruising about 70 mph down the freeway. I heard this strange noise (in the front tire) and knew that something was terribly wrong. Just as I was about to pull off the road, a voice said "it is okay, go to your sisters". I was stunned to say the least, but kept trusting and going on. The noise got really bad and again I started to pull off the road. Again the voice "It is okay, go to your sisters." So again, I trusted and kept going.
| | I got to my sisters about 20 minutes later scared and shaking like a leaf. When I told her what happened she called my dear husband and he came to get the car. He couldn't get it to move so they put it up on a dolly and drove it to the gas station.
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The mechanic at the gas station took a look at the tire and said the wheel bearings had gone bad and it must have been really scarey to come to a sudden stop as the tire had "welded" itself to the spindle. I told him I had driven it for several miles that way and he didn't believe me! He got out the air-powered lug wrench to take the tire off and even with the air power he couldn't get it to budge! Then he really told me there was no way I could have driven on that tire for the time I said.
| | Just then my son (he was 4 at the time) pops up and says to the man, "Of course we drove on it, the angel said it was okay!" I think I helped to convert that mechanic right on the spot.
| | It was not until that moment at the garage that Becky realized that her young son had indeed heard the same voice she had, only her son knew that it belonged to an angel!
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| | Becky
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Talk About Being Blessed
by Lisa Graham |
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| | Some people experience a near miss and think "Wow, that was lucky" while others look at the situation and exclaim, "Talk about being blessed!" Lisa is one of those people who sees the situation and usually knows who to thank when she has a close call. Here is her story:
| | When I was 9 months pregnant I was living in Florida. I was on the telephone one afternoon with my mom when a thunderstorm was rolling in. It started getting really nasty. It was type of storm where you might want to get some clothing and belongings together in case you have to flee really fast. We all know how bad some of the electric storms can get in Florida. Well I no sooner hung up the telephone when the metal base of the fountain in the middle of the pond in front of our apartment was hit by lightening. It was so powerful that it fried every electrical thing in our home, including our answering machine and telephone. Had I stayed on the phone one minute longer I might not be here today, nor my daughter.
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An Angel to Protect Him
by Lisa |
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| | When my son was a little under a year old, he was sitting in his little bouncy chair on the floor. The kind that he can stand up and play with toys. I was upstairs getting something and I heard a crash! I ran down the stairs to discover broken glass shattered all over the kitchen floor. Apparently, my daughter was trying to reach a drinking glass and had knocked it over.
| | I picked up what I thought were all the pieces and headed back upstairs. Some twenty minutes later I returned to the main floor to vacuum and clean. I looked over at my son in his little chair and noticed he had something in his hand. It was a large chunk of sharp glass! I don't know how long he had been handling it and I shuddered realizing he could have put it in his mouth or slit his neck or wrist with the jagged edges. He could have bled to death! . I discovered from my daughter just how it came to be in his hand. She said, "mommy, I gave it to him to play with."
| | I truly believe an angel had to have been watching over him that day.
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Traffic Patrol Angels
by Ellie |
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| | I wonder if God sends out traffic patrol angels? I think I have one and possibly more. I notice that I've really been keeping my traffic patrollers working overtime!
| | I remember when I was in my early teens and I had gone from our small town to the big city to compete in a dance contest. In those days it was called Jiving. On the way home the car I was in went out of control. There were no seat belts in those days and as the car rolled again and again, the door banged open, I was thrown toward it. A young man who was with me and was very athletic grabbed me and held me in the car. If I had tumbled out I would likely have been dead. When I look back on it, it was a funny set of circumstances that put me in that particular car with that young man. Now I am beginning to think perhaps they were not coincidences.
| | Years later I was living in another town and had to drive into a different large city to teach for a night class at a College. A full-blown snow storm was in progress as I headed home. I was driving quite cautiously peering into the black nothingness, through the furious swishing of windshield wipers.
| | I was on a well-traveled highway, in good condition and had my choice of two driving lanes with full shoulders on either side. I felt I should be okay. Suddenly as I came out on the other side of an overpass the car hit black ice and cold fear hit me, colder than the outdoors and knotted my insides. I knew I had a death grip on the wheel as I wrestled to keep the car from heading for the ditch. The car lurched from side to side, sliding and weaving. Why couldn't I just get it straight?
| | Fear explored my brain in a race faster than the car itself! This was always a busy highway, day or night there was never a let up. To shoot over to the other lanes would be an invitation to death!! Desperately I struggled to keep the car righted but it slid sickeningly toward the ditch and the traffic lanes on the other side. I called out loud to the only help I could, "God, please help me!"
| | As the car slid straight toward the ditch I released my grip on the wheel and turned the problem over to HIM. There was nothing I could do. I had lost the battle and knew it. I could sense movement and then nothing.
| | There was no sound and no sensation. I did not feel the car move nor hit anything. I felt as though I was in sound studio, with any possible sound being sucked away. It was so completely quiet. Sort of like Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence!
| | I sat in complete darkness and wondered where I was. I stepped out of the car, puzzled as to what may have taken place. The car was entirely covered in a blanket of white snow and now it was sideways blocking both lanes of oncoming traffic. I looked over the roof of the little vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, and saw cars in both lanes heading straight for me.
| | It was dark and my car sat there dead, no headlights to warn the unsuspecting travelers. I stood in the darkness, waving frantically in an effort to warn the drivers who were rushing straight at me.
| | Unbelievably all oncoming traffic saw me in time and moved over to the shoulders to get by. I pushed my car over to the side of the road and tentatively tried the starter. The motor caught. I traveled cautiously along listening to the motor. Everything sounded as it should. Of course now I was traveling in the wrong direction on the other side of the road. I made it to the first crossroad, got turned back around in the direction I wanted to travel in and once again headed for home.
| | Later, the car was checked. There was not even grass caught on the undercarriage from travelling through the ditch. There were no signs that this car had been in and out of a ditch!
| | For years after, each time I went under that overpass I thanked God for hearing me that night.
| | A few years later I had moved out to the country to live and my husband had to be away in Mexico. We had a rough winter that year and the roads were tough to travel on. I was driving home one evening and the last mile and a half was gravel. I was glad of that hoping I would get a bit more traction. I was a half-mile from home when the car went out of control. It happened at the worst spot on the road where the ditches were deep. Suddenly the car was moving sideways and then actually backwards!
| | In the next few seconds I saw the car drop over the high embankment and crash into the ditch. It was weird because I knew it had not happened yet and still it was like a picture show in my mind. I called out, "Heavenly Father please help me!"
| | I felt the car not only stop but begin to travel forward. I was not functioning. I was not touching anything. I knew where my help came from. I cried grateful tears as I made my way home. I just kept on saying over and over, "Oh thank you God, Oh thank you. Thank you so much." I wept grateful tears.
| | Within a week, on the same road, yet traveling in the other direction, again the car hit a sheet of ice. I was heading off the country road on to a secondary highway and I knew the car could not make the turn. Then I noticed a bald spot of highway where there was no ice. I decided that I needed to aim for that spot. If I hit it right I felt the tires would grip and I could turn the car. I hit what I thought was bald pavement. It wasn't! The car could not make the turn and began a sickening lurch toward the ditch. Again I called on the Lord for help, "God help me please!"
| | The vehicle should have been rolling into the ditch, instead I felt it stop and then I felt it being moved forward. It was back on the highway and moving in the right direction. All was well.
| | My body shook with sobs over the wonder of His love and His care. Tears coursed down my cheeks as I thanked Him over and over. For the next six miles or seven miles I talked to God, expressing my thankfulness.
| | I know that I have been so fortunate. I know that I have been blessed with His love, but I think I must really tire out His angels! (tire out his angels?... could that be a pun?)
| | There is truly power in prayer. Sometimes His answer is instantaneous and sometimes He gives us what we need, which may not have been exactly what we asked for. The thing is, He's always listening and He is in control.
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| | Ellie Braun-Haley
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Solace for Grace
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| | I knew Camille for more than ten years and found her to be warm and thoughtful. She loved life and she loved people. For some reason she could never seem to please her mother and it was good they lived a six hour drive apart. She was in her early thirties with a young family when she was diagnosed with cancer and, in her final months, her mother, Grace, came to help care for her. A closeness developed between the two and after Camille died, Grace was filled with remorse because of all those lost years. All the times they had fought, all the harsh words, the angry remonstrations began to dominate her thoughts. "What a waste of our precious time," she thought. "We had so little of it together and now there is no time left to retrieve those caustic words or to lessen the sting."
| | On the evening of the same day Camille had died, Grace went to bed. She wasn't certain why. How could she ever sleep again? She wanted to cry forever. She thought that maybe if she cried long enough someone would hear and make everything better. As she lay on the bed remembering and mourning her daughter, she looked up to see Camille standing before her. She looked so much better than she had for those past six months, when the cancer had drained her health and then her life. Camille seemed to be in a bright light or part of a light. She smiled at her mother, comforting her, giving her one final message of love and solace.
| | The guilt that Grace wrestled with for things she did not do was over-powering and quite likely would have held her back from learning and progressing. The vision of her daughter, well and whole, allowed Grace to see beyond the veil and gave her hope for another time when she would be reunited with Camille, a time when she could continue the relationship she had only started to develop.
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| | A true story from the book, "A Little Door, A Little Light"
To read more about this book or to order it, visit Eagle Creek Publishers
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