Safety Through A

Stormy Night

I’ve never seen an angel. That is, I don’t know that I have. But sometimes I wonder if I gave three of them a ride one stormy night a long time ago. It was the night I drove from San Diego to Santa Barbara in the very worst of a Californian flood. My daughter Judy, two or three years old, slept through most of the trip in the backseat. Most everything that could happen was happening, or so it seemed. At one point the highway was closed, but I was told how to go around and get back on. In one town – or city – I drove through three blocks of water so deep it was gushing around the head-lights of my car. Abandoned vehicles were all around me, and the old Durant I was driving stalled but started again. I couldn’t have paid for towing. I had about 75 cents, and the trip was taking twice the usual time. I pushed another car several blocks to a service station. That was no problem. So when, shortly after that, three men hailed me and wanted to be pushed to a station, I could see no reason to refuse – at least not in a storm like that. It was about two or three in the morning by then. This time it was twenty miles before we came to a station that was open. Three of those miles were through water that looked like a lake. I have no idea how those three men could tell where the highway was. But all I had to do was push. When we did come to the station that was open, the men filled my tank with gas. Then they asked if they could ride with me into Los Angeles. Their car’s motor was wet, and they wanted to leave it at the station to dry out. This was the most providential thing that could have happened, for I didn’t know my way through Los Angeles even when it wasn’t flooded. I had intended to go directly up the coast and bypass the city, but I had missed the signs in the storm. These three men knew exactly which streets were flooded and exactly how to avoid them. We didn’t have to backtrack once. One got out of the car at one point, another farther on, and third man got out just a block from Wilshire Boulevard. From there I knew my way. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but in the intervening years I have often wondered if those three men may have been angels. Of course God uses men too. But still I wonder! Thank you Lord.