We were drawing to the conclusion of our writers
meeting; with Easter almost upon us some of the group had been away so it had
transpired into quite an intimate time of telling our stories rather than
writing today. We had been discussing a write up which featured a story about
one of the writers in our group and mentioned an Angel encounter.
Knowing
what I know now, I believe you can have divine encounters, as may some of you. But
way back when I was in my twenties the thought of ‘God commanding His angels to
guard us and take charge over us’, as promised in Psalm 91 seemed ludicrous. Back
then I believed it was all down to me. What would be would be. God and me, well
lets just say I never gave Him much thought and I felt sure the feeling was
mutual. How wrong can you be?
To tell you my story, I need to take you back to
almost 1980. I had been walking home alone, a stupid thing to do I was later to
realize but at the time I had been fuming over a situation that I really won’t
bore you with, all I will say is that I had been out for the evening and it had
not gone well. In those days when I got in a temper I found it best to just
leave. Let the fury revolve around in my head; don’t unleash it on anyone else.
God forbid it if any one found out anything bothered me!
So there I was stomping through the shopping
precinct in the dead of night when I suddenly felt this hand seize me and grab
me by the throat. I remember that menacing voice so clearly. ‘Keep your mouth
shut or I’ll do you some serious damage!’
What followed was like a nightmare. I don’t know
if it was the fear that kicked in but I know I felt a chill run down my spine and I knew at that precise moment if I was to get out of this in one piece I had to keep calm. I felt myself shut down. I somehow had to step out of myself and pretend I was not really there. The whole
situation suddenly became quite surreal. I sensed the guy got off on people’s fear,
realizing this I tried to make conversation with him and within minutes he had
let go of me. As I walked up the road I tried to humor him. Anything to put
off the inevitable because I knew without a shadow of a doubt he was not going
to just let me go!
As we continued to walk in my desperation I
suddenly found myself praying, ‘Please, somebody come, please send someone so I can
make a run for it.’ But nobody came and
eventually after what seemed like an eternity I accepted that I was not going
to get out of this. As his hands grabbed me again I felt my body tense. ‘This is it,’ I thought.
Suddenly I felt his hand relax. ‘Wait don’t
move, somebody’s coming,’ he whispered in my ear.
Did I wait?
I ran and ran and as I rounded the corner by
some miracle I saw a policeman.
‘What’s your hurry young lady?’ I heard him say,
‘you rounded that corner like hell was at your heels.’
In my distressed state I just muttered, ‘Something
like that,’ I was too shocked to explain; ‘I need a taxi, I want to go home,’ I
stammered trying not to break down.
The policeman gave me a knowing look, but said nothing. It was as if he knew what had taken place. Then without taking
his eyes off me, he made a kind of gesture with his hand and as he did so like
out of nowhere, a taxi appeared.
In my relief I just opened the door and almost
flew into the back seat. My only thought was to get home and it wasn’t until our
house was in sight that I let my thoughts reel back over the evening. Phew!
That was close. That was way too close. Thank goodness for that Policeman!
Without him it could have all turned out so differently.
As I approached the front door I found myself pondering,
for a Policeman he had looked kind of different, by different I don’t mean
weird. It was just he had looked as if he had been from another time. His
helmet had looked so large; in fact his uniform had looked like one from years
gone by.
I shook my head. It must be the shock; it was making
me lose the plot!
Mother nearly had a fit as my tale unfolded and
next day dad called the police. Apparently I had had a very lucky escape; mine
was not the first attack. But funnily enough there was no mention
of any policeman on patrol that night.
Reflecting over this event now, so
many years later, reminds me of that saying, ‘Fools rush in where Angels fear
to tread.’
I believe
in my case the Angel rushed in and rescued a fool where she should have feared
to tread.
I also remember making myself a promise that
day.
I may be no Angel but from now on I would be no Fool
either!
Why?
Because one touch from Heaven is all it takes to
change your life.
