Angel on the Highway

I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5pm, stuck in traffic and my car started to choke and sputter and died.

I barely managed to get to a petrol station, glad to have a warm spot to wait for the breakdown truck. The car was dead - it wouldn't even turn over.

Before I could call the recovery firm, I saw a woman walking out of the forecourt supermarket and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a petrol pump! So I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, she was overcome by sobs.

She was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a 5p coin.

At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ageing car crammed full of stuff with 3 children in the back (1 in a car seat), and the petrol pump reading £5.00.

I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying, "I don't want my kids to see me crying," so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she had a long journey ahead of her and that things were very hard for her right now.

So, I asked, "And you were praying?" That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, "He heard you and He sent me."

I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely. I walked to the next-door McDonald's and bought two big bags of food, some gift certificates for more food and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car who attacked it like wolves and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little.

She told me her name, and where she lived. Her partner left two months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet.

She knew she wouldn't have money to pay the rent and finally, in desperation, had called her parents with whom she had not spoken in about five years. They lived in the West Country and said she could come live with them and try to get back on her feet.

So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the children where they were going to go, but not that they were going to live there.

I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road.

As I was walking over to my car, she said,

"So, are you like an angel or something?"

I said, "Sometimes God uses ordinary people."

It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow for a check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong.

Sometimes the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings.

Author Unknown