My cousin posted this on Facebook:
“Have you ever experienced a time when you just knew that God had protected you? I was driving down the highway tonight when all of a sudden I had a mattress in front of me! I couldn’t change lanes because there was traffic on either side. I thought to myself, I am going to wreck. There is no way to avoid it. I can’t explain how I avoided it but to say that God and his angels protected me!”
This brought back memories of an incident several years ago. We pulled into a roadside rest area on the west side of Flagstaff, Arizona. Suddenly snowflakes began to fall. It was early July so this was a total surprise. The flakes got bigger and bigger and fell faster and faster. The ground became white in what seemed a matter of minutes. Visibility was poor and we were contemplating whether we should to on when the snow stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
We pulled back onto the interstate and drove several miles when the traffic began to slow and then stopped. We could see flashing lights ahead. There was only one eastbound lane open and westbound lanes were closed. There were cars in the ditches on both sides of the interstate and in the median. Emergency vehicles, tow trucks, and state troopers were on the scene. The cars had driven into the snow storm unexpectedly and had begun to slide on the slick pavement. One car slid into the side of a mountain pushing the front almost to the driver. It was bedlam. We eventually got past the havoc and within a short distance there was no evidence of any moisture and traffic was moving smoothly.
Shortly after dusk we stopped again at a truck stop west of Gallup, New Mexico, and went into the adjoining sandwich shop. The prevailing question inside was, “Did you come through the snowstorm.” Strangers were comparing experiences and near misses. We continued to listen to stories as we got our food and chose a table. A young man soon brought his food to the table next to us and asked if we had been in the snowstorm. We told him that we had and described the scene we had driven through. He described a similar experience and mentioned how muddy and soft the ground was beside the highway.
He told us that he had flown to Tennessee to the Saturn factory and picked up a new car and was driving home. We asked where his home was and he told us it was California. That didn’t add up. Questions began to arise. We told him that we were going to Texas and would be stopping in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the night. He looked puzzled and more questions arose. He asked why we had not continued east into Albuquerque as the snowstorm was west of Albuquerque. Was there a problem that caused us to backtrack? We laughed and told him that our snowstorm was west of Flagstaff. As we realized that there had been two summer snowstorms that day, we wondered how many other people had been comparing experiences without realizing they might be discussing two different areas.
He grew quiet and after a while softly said, “I had an unusual experience.” When he had come upon traffic sliding around in the snowstorm, his concern was for damage to his beautiful new car. He said cars were spinning and sliding all directions. He was trying to avoid them all. When a car out of control came toward him, he had no choice but to go off the shoulder into the mud. His car sank into mud to the bottom of the doors. He could find no damage to the car other than mud everywhere. He had no idea how he was going to get the car back onto the solid shoulder. Suddenly a man called to him. He looked up. A pickup was stopped and a man was walking toward him. The man asked if he needed some help and told him that he would pull him out. He gladly accepted the offer. The man hooked onto the car with a chain and pulled him out. He thanked the man and asked him to wait as he wanted to get his name. He turned to open his trunk and looked back. The man was gone. He was alone. He looked both directions and there was no one and no pickup in sight.
As we parted, I asked, “Do you believe in Guardian Angels.?” He replied, “Yes, and I believe that I saw mine today.”