A Flat Tire, A Dead Cell Phone, and Two Disguised Angels
Today I think I saw two angels. You might have thought they were two middle-aged, average Americans stolidly on their way to shop for groceries. But Hebrews 13:2 says “Some have entertained angels unawares.”
I often travel alone. I try to be prepared for automobile trouble. I own a reliable vehicle and try to maintain it well. I have good roadside service insurance. I have a cell phone I sometimes forget to recharge, so I keep a plug-in cord in the automobile to recharge it from the cigarette lighter. I have seven remarkable children who would gladly come to my rescue if they knew I needed them. So I feel quite comfortable when I’m driving alone.
Except today. Not today.
Today as I drove to my hair appointment, I hit something really hard on the roadway, not sure what. By the jolt I knew I’d ruined a tire. I eased off the road, set gear in park, turned on my cell phone to call my roadside service provider. But my cell phone was dead. No big deal. I plugged it into the cigarette lighter to recharge it. It wouldn’t recharge. No houses near. Fast traffic on the road. Not much hope of someone seeing my plight. A whispered prayer. And a loving God who bent low to hear my frightened call.
Perhaps twenty minutes later, a couple pulled off the road. A man and his wife greeted me. “Can we help?”
“Flat tire. Cell phone dead.”
“ Do you have a spare tire? I’ll fix it for you.”
Within a few minutes the man had put on my spare tire and admonished me to drive slowly home since it was a “bubble tire.” I expressed my gratefulness to the two of them the best I could. I think I saw a shaft of light on angel wings as their automobile moved down the road.
Two sweet things I wll remember from this day.
One: Psalm 91:2,3 says of God,
“He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.”
God’s angels did guard me today. He answered my prayer for safety and help.
Two, I remember how very often my husband Walt stopped to help a stranded vehicle, sometimes when he was pressed for time and it was very inconvenient. Once, when Walt and I were leaving his heart doctor’s office, a woman came running after us. “Pastor Handford, you don’t know me, but thirty years ago, early on a Sunday morning, you stopped to change a flat tire for me. You were in your ‘preaching outfit,’ on your way to church, but you took time for me and I am forever grateful.”
I think perhaps that today, God remembered how faithfully my husband cared for people in need. I believe God sent His disguised angels to help me in my need because Walt was so faithful in caring for others. Hebrews 6:10 (nlt) says,
“God is not unfair.
He will not forget how hard you have worked for Him and
how you have shown your love to Him by caring for other Christians.”
Now I’m asking God to help me become more aware of others in need, so I can be His angel in disguise.
A Word of Thanks from Elizabeth Rice Handford
