Every Day Miracles Happen: God's Angels On Our Shoulders

Know

CHAPTER 1

FIRST OFF, ALWAYS BE A BLESSING

I don’t know how many times I can say this, but karma (as you sow, so shall you reap) is almost as close as one can get to a living thing. It affects so much of our lives, yet we have no conception of what it is or how it works. We have heard so many times of that still, small voice within us (yes, ALL of us) that we too often ignore (and shouldn’t). Here is one of my favorite stories about a young man who thought he truly wanted to know God’s path for his life… (I beg forgiveness here, this came to me so many years ago and I will paraphrase). I know not who wrote this, but kudos to them!

A young man decided one day that he was going to listen to that still, small voice of God, and no matter what it asked of him or told him to do, he was going to do it. While leaving work one day, he ‘heard’ the ‘voice’ tell him to drive a certain way. But Father, I need to go home! I’ve just gotten off work and I’m tired. The voice persisted and so, remembering his pledge to heed the voice of God, he turned the opposite way out of the parking lot and headed in the direction he was told to go. A left here, a right there, at each point when directions were given, the young man offered an argument as to why he shouldn’t be going that way… that’s a dangerous part of town or I will never get home from here. Yet, each time he relented and went the way the voice told him, remembering his promise.

At one point the young man was instructed to pull over in front of a grocery store. Confused, he once again started to argue and was told (more than once) to go into the store and get a gallon of milk. Finally, he did as he was told and came back to the car with the milk. He was told to drive again and given directions at each turn, all the while worrying as he was getting into a very rundown section of town.

Suddenly the voice told him to pull over and park and instructed the man to take the milk and go into a certain building. The man had finally learned to stop arguing and just do what the ‘voice’ had told him to do. He grabbed the gallon of milk and went into the specified building, where he was told to go to a certain floor and a certain door and knock. The door was opened by a young father, whose baby was crying in the background. Not knowing what to do, he held up the milk to the father, whose eyes got big with surprise. He slowly reached out to take the milk, exclaiming, Honey, we prayed for milk to feed the baby and it has come!

The fellow who had listened to that ‘still, small voice of God’ had just been a blessing in this young family’s life. Imagine how he felt once he realized he had been instrumental in bringing a miracle to their lives. But it doesn’t stop there…

We ALL can be blessings to those around us; people we know, people we don’t know. There are so many out in the world right now who need to know (after all their prayers) that yes, God is listening. First He has to find the right person to complete the task, and sometimes He has to send an angel. Many times, you will find angels in human form – they are at the right place at the right time, do their thing and are gone. We never know their name. We may remember their face, but they ask for no acknowledgement, no accolades for their help. They just DO IT.

In California, we participated in horse round-ups. There were also accidents in front of my office with gas leaking from a car (the front window to my office was over 20 feet long and I wished to keep it!) so we hauled a water hose over to the owner who kept the gas thinned out with it. Another time we heard the sound of a vehicle hitting a body (something I never wish to hear again!) and we ran outside to find a motorcyclist on the road, having been rear-ended by a pickup truck. (As his bike was hit so hard, his body went backwards into the truck!) We tended him and kept him safe until the paramedics came.

Once we moved to Tennessee, there were piglets to be cornered and herded back to the barn; at that same point in the road, weeks later, we witnessed an older woman coming around the 90-degree curve into another sharp curve which she missed and ran into the trees, the airbag breaking her arm. We called for help for her, got her out of the car and tended her. One time we made a flying run up to Michigan to pick up a girl who wanted to come back to Tennessee. We hit Indianapolis on a cold winter night, coming upon an accident that had just occurred. I spotted fire under the hood of one of the cars, and pulled over to the inside shoulder. My daughter and I got out of the car and ran to the car on fire, seeing one occupant inside. We opened the door and pulled him out, resting him on the road far enough from the car. Being such a cold night (and my truck without a heater), we had blankets in the truck and covered him up with the blankets to keep the shock at bay until the paramedics arrived. Any kindness, no matter how small, is welcomed.

Another time, having supper with my then 10-year-old daughter and friends at a local restaurant in Tennessee, a friend of my friends stopped by the table to visit. She was at least seven months pregnant and, in catching some of her conversation, found that the doctors were worried about the child and what problems the baby would have, once born.

I began to get the impression that something needed to be told to her. I tried to shut out their conversation so I could hear it better. After I understood what was being said, I thought a quiet I understand and caught the pregnant woman before she left the table, wiggling my finger at her to get her closer so I could whisper to her.

I began, I am told things by God on occasion to tell people and I am told to tell you that your child will be just fine and not to worry. I looked her in the eyes and nodded. She stood up for a moment and thought about what I had said. Tears began to come to her eyes and she reached back down to me and gave me a hug. Have faith, little sister, I whispered to her, you and your child will be just fine. As she loosened her grip from my shoulders and stood up, wiping the tears from her face, she mouthed a thank you and left the table.

A young couple with three children showed up at my door around suppertime one evening. While I had seen the mother around town, at the grocery store, etc., I really didn’t know her, but felt I had met her at a friend’s house, so always said ‘hello’ to her. To this day, I do not know how they found me, but one night the entire family showed up at my home. I let them in and got them comfortable in the living room. The father was telling me about how he had lost his job and was in danger of losing the place they were renting. I gave him counseling on the work and told him to talk to his landlord about the rent. Many times people don’t realize that it costs more for a landlord to get someone out of a house and repair/replace worn-out or broken things than it would for them to work with a tenant. Our meager supper was done (hamburger soup) but I had asked my daughter to augment the veggies and stock to make a bigger pot. For some reason I didn’t want to send them away without a meal (it was getting late), even though I knew what was in that pot I had hoped to last my OWN family two days until payday, I offered it to share it with them.

They agreed, and my daughter served up the soup. We had one last loaf of bread we spread around to help with the soppies and to help fill bellies. In total there were eight of us eating that evening and, as I collected the empty bowls from everyone to take to the kitchen to wash, I thought, I wonder if there will even be a wee bit in there for my lunch tomorrow? Sure enough, in the bottom of the pot was just enough for my lunch the next day. As far as our dinner for Thursday night, we had already decided on breakfast for dinner. More importantly, that family had come for counseling, and I could only hope they utilized all the information I gave them. I never saw them again in town. Entertaining angels unaware? I guess we’ll never know…

Another time, almost 40 years ago, when Bob and I were first married (my daughter’s father), we moved to a small town in California and made friends with three other couples. We usually ended up at Matt and Marla’s house as it was quite a bit bigger and better able to handle all four couples and the respective children. One day we went over to visit and found Matt had suffered a double hernia and would be out of work for six weeks. He wasn’t sure how he was going to pay the rent, electric, etc., and to buy food for himself and his pregnant wife. While he was out of the living room, my husband and I, along with the other two couples, schemed to help Matt pay his rent and electric, and my husband and I would supply enough food to get Matt and Marla until his next payday after going back to work. This wasn’t hard for me, as I worked and Bob did as well, and we also lived in a company house with $50 a month rent. Food I had plenty of, so once we got home, I began to pack up boxes and boxes of food (literally, my cabinets WERE running over!). Finally I had nothing but the cold stuff to get together, so I had Bob start loading our car down with the boxes of food, while I bagged up meats and milk and other cold items to load last. We took our seriously overloaded car to Matt and Marla’s and we were met at the door by Matt. I asked him if he could do us a favor, and without thinking, he said ‘yes’. I told him I had overbought on groceries and my fridge, freezer and cabinets were overflowing and asked him if he would be so kind as to take the excess off my hands. Without blinking, he said ‘sure’, and so Bob and I started to unload the car and brought the food into the house. I think Matt was really stunned by how much we were bringing. To this day, I’m not sure he realized it was all a set-up, but we were at least sure our friends were going to be eating until Matt was able to go back to work.

I would like to inject here two incidents, many years apart and involving the same people and how God can work in our lives. I remember seeing the first part on a show, probably about the unexplained where, when we found out the punch line at the end of the segment, gave one pause with a hearty Whoa!!! to go with it. In the story, a trucker is driving down a two-lane road with his CB radio on, and he’s hearing a man calling for help. Apparently, some medical issue gave the man an issue where he lost control of the car and went off into the woods and slammed into a tree. The trucker responded to the man and tried to get a fix on him as the man described the road he’d been on. The trucker heard the man come in louder and clearer, indicating to the trucker that the man’s location was close. He had slowed down and looked diligently into the trees to the right, trying to locate the man. He kept talking to him on the CB during this time, and as the man replied, could tell how he was coming through wall to wall that the trucker was close to his location. The driver pulled his truck over and began to walk along the edge of the trees with his flashlight and finally located the man in his wrecked vehicle. He ran back to his truck after checking on the man and called for emergency assistance to get the man to the hospital. As the injured man was finally being placed into the ambulance, the highway patrol officer began asking the trucker as to how he found the man, since the car had been in the woods quite a ways. The trucker indicated that he had initially heard him on the CB radio and found him when he was banging wall to wall through the CB.

The highway patrol officer looked at him in a bit of disbelief saying, You say you heard him through the CB radio?

"Yes, sir. That’s how I knew he was in trouble and I was able to locate him by the strength of his