March 10, 2005

[Rev. Doc]

Angels All Around

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."
Hebrews 13:2

There are so many accounts of divine protection. Here is but one case.

Donna Funkhouser was eighteen years old when she met her angel. She was working in a large grocery store, and that particular night, she had drawn the late shift. By ten o'clock, when the store closed, snow and ice was coating the parking lot. The employees scurried to their cars, and quickly drove away. All but Donna. Her car wouldn't start.

Over and over, the ignition refused to catch. Finally, it did, but the car chugged only to the middle of the icy street before it died. Frightened and cold, Donna looked around. She was alone.

But no! Suddenly, an elderly man was knocking on her window. "Try it again!" he called.

Donna was startled, but surprisingly, not afraid. "Where did you come from?" she asked him through the glass.

"I'm parked right behind you," he answered. "Try the car again."

Sure enough, there was his car. How had she missed seeing him pull up? She turned the key in the ignition one more time. The engine roared to life.

"I'll follow you home," the man told her, and walked back to his car.

Strange. He hadn't even asked where she lived. She was only fifteen minutes away, but he surely didn't know that. And he was too old to help her if she slipped into a ditch. But Donna was too cold and worried to think about it.

Slowly, carefully, Donna drove home, and true to his word, her Good Samaritan stayed behind her, even pulling up behind her into the driveway. Donna saw her mother watching out the window, and without looking back, she jumped out of the car, raced across the snowy lawn and into the warmth of the hallway. "Where have you been?" her mother cried in relief.

"The car wouldn't start right away, but a nice older man followed me home," Donna explained. "Wait-I forgot to thank him!"

Her mother was looking out the window again. "No one followed you home," she said. "I've been right here, and I saw you pull into the driveway---alone."

Prayer: Thank God for His constant watchful care over your life.

"To those who are willing to believe, no explanation of these events is necessary...and to those who are not willing to believe, no explanation is possible."
~Joan Wester Anderson