Angels?

A friend asked me recently, do you believe in angels and would you care to share a story?? So, here is one story that came flooding back.

The year was 1994, and Adam had started his freshman year at Auburn. Thanksgiving was coming up, and as has been the practice since Dean was swimming,the swimming team could not take time off for Thanksgiving to come home.

Dean and I decided to ask Lori if she would like to join us, and bring Thanksgiving to him. So, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we loaded up and headed for I-75 and the 8 1/2 hour trip to Auburn. I was driving the first leg, Dean in the front passenger, and Lori in the back.( No, Pinellas County Schools, I wasn't really sick that day).

As we approached "Malfunction Junction",that wonderful area of road in Tampa where I-4 (the high road)and I-275 (the low road) clumsily try to meet up, the traffic was pretty heavy, as usual. "Something" made me look up, as we started to go under I-4. A truck was scraping and bouncing along the side of the highway above us, and I actually observed it "hopping" up and one wheel hanging over. I knew that truck was coming over.

Most first instincts would be to hit the brakes, but I hit the accelerator, and for those of you who know me, closed my eyes!! I began slowing down, because something was being dragged under the car, and Dean was gently nudging my arm and telling me to pull over. So I opened my eyes and did that. Behind us, in the exact place where we had been, was a large truck, upside down and flattened on the highway. Behind it were three lanes of cars, all stopped and stacking up. We were the only car to make it through, along with a vehicle that had been a few seconds ahead of us. Under the car was a round piece of metal that had come off the truck as it fell, or after it hit. That is just how close the three of us came, to joining the driver of that truck (the accident was not his fault) as fatalaties on that Thanksgiving weekend.

All I could think of, as Lori and I walked back to the stillness of that scene, was how devastated Adam would have been if his whole "world" had left him that day. Someone else's whole "world" had left in that moment...arm in arm, lost in our prayers and thoughts, Lori and I walked back to the car, which Dean had cleaned up and started up, and we continued on to celebrate Thanksgiving with Adam.

Why do I attribute this to angels and God's intervention? 2 things... I hit the accelerator instead of stomping on the brakes, which would have been anyone's, including my, first instincts. OK OK..I still probably shouldn't have shut my eyes, but as you can tell, we were being guided. The second thing, if something had not made me look up, no telling... I do not go under any "overpass" since that day, without thanking God for giving us a few more days, and praying that he is looking out for that man's family.

So yes!!! Emphatically, I say, "I believe in angels!"