An Angel helped me change a flat tire once...
No, really, I'm not kidding. I was on my way home from work and was on a stretch of highway that is typically a parking lot at rush hour. This particular day, it was a little lighter than normal which only means that the cars were moving at about 35 - 40 miles per hour... bumper to bumper.
I had a blow-out and luckily was able to make it over to the shoulder without incident. After I finished cussing a blue streak, I got out, looked at the tire, and went into the back to get the jack, tire iron and spare. Well, the spare was there, but that was it. No tire iron, no lug wrench, no jack. No sooner had this fact registered than a rather drab and somewhat beat-up pickup truck pulled off the road directly in front of me.
A guy steps out, dressed in blue "worker" clothes like a mechanic or janitor but without a spot on them. He had platinum blond hair that was slightly messy, but clean, and the most penetrating blue eyes I think I've ever seen. He walked with an easy gait and despite the traffic chunking by literally less than a foot from him, seemed like he might have been taking a stroll through a meadow. As he approaches, he says, "Need any help?"
Well, all the stuff I just mentioned had registered, but I didn't really think anything about it. "Just a good samaritan," I figured. Poster child for the Hitler Youth maybe, but still just a good guy helping somebody out. Cool.
"Yeah," I said. "You wouldn't happen to have a Jack handy would you?" Without missing a beat the guy hauls a 2 ton floor jack out of the bed of the pickup truck. "Wow," I think to myself. "That was easy - and quick."
He brings it over and starts to jack up my car. Maybe my male macho ego took over or something, but I say, "No, that's fine. I can get it." Without a blink he steps back and lets me go at it. Maybe two or three pumps on the jack handle and I realize that I don't have a lug wrench or tire iron either. I turn to the guy to ask him if, by any wierd twist of fate, he's got a lug wrench too when guess what, without me even asking he steps up with a tire cross in his hands and starts to bend down to loosen the lug nuts.
A little non-plussed, I say, "Wow. Thanks. But really, I got it. Thanks." I took the tire cross and started to take the lug nuts off. He just kinda hunkered down next to me while I worked. He chit chatted a little - small talk. I can't remember exactly what was said until I was just about done with the last nut and he looks at me straight in the eye with this soft warm smile and says, "Well, Jason, looks like we're just about done here huh?"
The guy new my name. I'd never seen him before in my life. Promise. I'm terrible with names, but I never forget a face or if I've met someone or not and its not like I'm some kind of celebrity that everyone knows or even that I do any kind of public speaking that the guy could have been in a crowd somewhere.
As I looked at him, I just KNEW that he was an Angel sent here to help me out. I finished putting the spare on and as I was taking the blown tire to the back of the car, he grabbed the jack and put it in the back of the truck. I handed him the tire cross and stuck out my hand to shake his. I looked him in the eyes and said with all my heart, "Thank you. I really appreciate it." He shook my hand and winked.
He got into the truck and as soon as a space opened up for him in the traffic, he pulled into the continuous stream of cars.
As I turned around to get back in my car, I looked at where we (well I actually) had been working. The way the car was situated, I was kneeling less than six inches outside the white line of the travel lane. I realized that as I had been working, he had been actually two to three feet INSIDE the lane of traffic, putting himself between me and the oncoming cars.
Two days later, there was a story on the news about a man who was killed changing a tire in almost the exact same spot I had been in.
Yeah... I know... It's easy to say that it was just a good samaritan that somehow knew my name, but personally, I know differently. I know that it was an angel sent to protect me and keep me from getting killed on the highway. So as far as I'm concerned, "Yes. Angels are among us."  |