This Sunday my wife and I were getting coffee. As we walked into the store we noticed only a couple of people and promptly got our drinks. As I was mixing my coffee I had a guy, maybe 40-50 yrs old with a European accent and darker skin walk over to me and say "man what a beautiful day with all this sunlight". I responded by saying "yeah there is no wind and all the day is beautiful". The gentleman responds something to the effect "Aren't all the days beautiful?...." and walked off. Before I could lift my head up from mixing my coffee the guy was gone. Something in me started to doubt I even had the conversation with a person and I felt like I may be going nuts so I started to look everywhere for the guy I had just seen 5 seconds earlier. Nothing. Then I see a car pulling out from another businesses parking lot and from a fleeting glance I thought maybe the driver was him but I wasn't sure. My wife told me she had never seen me like that before...I told her I couldn't explain it. I just felt happy and also felt like I might be going nuts. You guys ever have something happen like that? I have another part to this story I'll share later....
Hebrews 13:2 (NIV) "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." I don't know if this is your answer but I have heard a lot of similar stories. One my sister shared with me was when her and her husband were pastoring in Iowa. She said she and her husband were going through a rough time, both in their church and their marriage. She heard a knock on her back door one evening after dark. It was winter and she said there was about a foot of snow on the ground. She answered the door and there was a young black boy without a coat and he was asking for food. She was taken by surprise because it was a very small rural town and there were no black families in the community. She said it kind of scared her and she tried to send him away. But she said he was very persistent and just kept saying: "lady I just want a little food." He finally left and she called her husband. They went to look for the young boy but he was no where to be found and there were also no footprints in the snow where he had just been. It really jolted them and one conversation led to another and things really began to work out for them. They are both convinced to this day that they had entertained an angel. I don't know but like I said, I have heard many similar stories over the years. Blessings.......Pastorjim
Nothing earth shattering to end my story. Well on the way to work last night about 830pm I stopped at an intersection. No other cars were behind me so I started thinking about that guy I met in the store. I reached down to put on some music that would kind of flow with what i was feeling and thinking about that encounter. I guess I was down there fooling around with the music too long as another car crept up on my bumper pretty much telling me the light was green and to go. I looked up and the light was green. Right then a darn car comes over the crest of the hill and plows through that intersection at darn near 80mph. If I hadn't been daydreaming and thinking about that encounter I would have just punched it on the green and God knows if that car would have slammed into me. Maybe I am just reading too much into this...it just seems odd.
it is a weird feeling but good to have to say the least. I remember the day we had to bury my dad. my dad loved bald eagles and just before the 21 gun salute I was told a bald eagle screeched seconds before the first shots. I didn't hear it and was bummed to say the least. I thought just maybe it was my dad's way of saying everything was ok. I kept thinking about it and wished I could've heard it. and as we left the cemetery we were driving to the luncheon and the weirdest thing happened. I kid you not a bald eagle came swooping from behind the car down in front of us and we followed that eagle about 5 miles until we had to turn off the highway. that eagle was only about 15' off the road. at that point any doubts about the afterlife were answered that day. I have no doubt that was my dad showing us the way and telling me he was ok since I missed his message at the burial. I think about that often and is very calming to me. this is a good thread you started.
I avoid conversations or engaging in interface with people in situations like that. Then again I don't go to coffee shops so there is that. I think that guy you saw is your grim reaper coming to take you home at just the right time.
Had a moment in my life where I was lost to say the least. All into drugs and just in a bad place, anyway I was in Chicago in the winter and got so messed up I was sitting outside of the club with shorts and a short sleeve shirt on (freezing basically). A homeless woman (its how I saw her) came up to me and sat down next to me and said " do not worry because I am your Guardian Angel and I will protect you and get you through this" she gave me her jacket and sat with me until I passed out. When I woke up I had no jacket and was told that I should have over dosed and died. Now I don't know if the drugs made me see things or my Guardian Angel came to protect me but either way I made it through the night. Personally I think that there are Angel's all around us and if you let them they will help you in any way that they can. Everything that you can do yourself is nothing compared to what has been done for you. This is why I pray before I hunt and after I hunt even if I didn't kill anything because I am grateful to be alive to be able to hunt. Just thought I would share.
I am glad you made it out of that life brother. And you are right, we are watched over when we don't even know it and even when we don't deserve it. Hopefully your story can be an inspiration for someone who might be struggling with the same things. Blessings...........Pastorjim
A few years ago both my folks were living in a nursing home near my brother. They had family visit every day so this was not a case where they were left alone in their last days. Anyway, my Mom was failing fast and we stayed with my brother a few days to be close to Mom and Dad. One morning, while I was still sleeping at about 4:00 I woke at the sound of my Mom calling my name. I thought I must have been dreaming but I was so wide awake after that I couldn’t get back to sleep. Not two hours later, the nursing home called to let us know Mom had passed away. I still wonder if Mom was just passing by to say good bye. Six months later, Dad was really having a tough time. My brother called me to tell me I should come and be there. I went and found my brother sitting with Dad. Dad was struggling to breath and not conscious. My brother left the room for a bit and I was alone with Dad. Dad had always been one to be concerned about how everyone was doing and worried that we were all going to be OK. While I was sitting there I told him we were all going to be OK, were going to miss him, and that we’d take real good care of “the girls”, his granddaughters. Within a minute he stopped struggling with his breathing and seemed to become very peaceful. A couple minutes later he sighed a big sigh and passed away. I think he just needed to know we were all going to be OK before he could leave. I'm glad I got a chance to say goodbye to both Mom and Dad.
I've had moments and encounters with some people that I became friends with and still know that when times were tough and I was very low, they just happened to come along at the right time and with the right project that they needed done and got me and the family through to financially better times. Exactly at those times, prayers were answered so although in my case, I doubt these were guardian angels themselves, I do feel that a great deal of divine intervention was taking place for the timing to be that fortuitous. I have my own personal theory that God works through us all as whatever medium serves the purpose at the right time and circumstance. I've tried my best to be a help to people in desperate situations at chance encounters as well though I cannot tell if it was just me being charitable or if it was divine inspiration or a little of both. I've bought groceries for people in the store who were caught in bad circumstances and fuel for strangers at the local gas station who were in bad circumstances among other things. I'd be flattered if someone someday said I think I met my guardian angel once and he paid for my tank of gas when I was away from home and lost my wallet or he paid for my groceries when I was in dire straights, don't know who he was as I never saw or heard from him again. Cool thought but in reality I just knew what it was like to be having a chitty day and hoped that someday, somewhere when I faced something similar that someone would return the favor by chance.
This same thing happened when we buried my dad. As we were pulling into the cemetery a nice buck and a few does ran out of the cemetery right in front of our cars. He loved deer in general... He would "hunt" but would never killed them, he "just liked to watch." Last Friday was my dads birthday... My mom was in a tattoo parlor waiting to get a tattoo. Just like any tattoo shop it was playing some generic modern rock music. All of a sudden one of my dads favorite songs (Highwayman) started playing. My dad is watching and guiding.
