The Blog of Columbus, Georgia

Friday, February 22, 2008

for 23 FEB 08: ANGELS TAKE THE WHEEL

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: You may find this item humorous, serious, or a little of both - but we offer these thoughts from time to time, as we keep a seventh-day Sabbath.)

It was a stunning story on the evening news the other night. A Columbus man drives from the northeast corner of town to the middle of Phenix City - and doesn't remember a moment of it. Of course, some drivers may become so overcome by their loud car stereos that this is commonplace....

Andrew Stevenson had a simple schedule, really: drop his five-year-old daughter off at school, then go to work. But he says he backed out of the driveway near Lynch Road - and the next thing he remembered was sitting in his pickup at a CVS parking lot on Highway 280 in Phenix City, facing the wrong direction toward traffic. That should have led to "blackout bingo," with some driver binging his truck.

Andrew Stevenson and his daughter apparently drove down J.R. Allen Parkway from the Schomberg Road area all the way to Phenix City on February 14, and somehow turned into a CVS store OFF the parkway - all while he was in a diabetic coma. After hearing his story, I'll never look at fast-moving lane-changing drivers on the interstate in the same way again.

Andrew Stevenson tells me his cell phone rang while he was parked at CVS - apparently a co-worker calling to ask where he was. "I'm lost," is all he could answer. And I'm not sure he even remembers giving that answer. He was more oblivious to his situation than some diehard supporters of Ron Paul's Presidential campaign.

(Stevenson is grateful to an unknown Phenix City female police officer, who came upon his truck. The woman had compassion and concern for his five-year-old daughter. Some five-year-old boys might have considered that trip the biggest thrill this side of Six Flags.)

You'd think Andrew Stevenson would have wound up in a wreck at some point in that long ride. Yet he and his young daughter wound up unhurt, except for Stevenson needing emergency medical treatment for his diabetic coma. After all that unconscious time, it was nothing different than a long ride across the plains of west Texas.

How did Andrew Stevenson and his daughter survive unharmed? He knows the answer, and he'll tell anyone who asks him. God intervened in his behalf. It wasn't quite the Carrie Underwood song "Jesus Take the Wheel," because he's already a Christian man. But guardian angels came to his aid - and who knows, they might even be able to display a Georgia drivers' license if asked.

This story of protection reminded me of the morning in northwest Oklahoma when I was driving in the countryside on a two-lane road, heading to a news story. I fell asleep for only a moment -- but woke up seconds before I would have rear-ended a stopped driver at very high speed. I'd never been more thankful for grassy borders of farmland in my life.

I firmly believe God and His angels intervene, when believing people need them most. The book of Hebrews calls them "ministering spirits," helping people who will inherit salvation. And someday, I might discover those angels are every bit as nice-looking as Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith on TV.

If you want to know about how these special spirits work and what they do, find a Bible with a concordance in the back. Read over the verses dealing with angels - and you might be surprised by what you find. I'm thankful they're around me, probably intervening in ways I don't even know about. Well, except maybe when telemarketers interrupt my dinner....

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