SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT
by Justine Lindsay
I was 18 and had just finished school (I live in Australia). Normally, this would be immensely exciting. However, I was awaiting my exam results, which scared the wits out of me. Even worse, I caught my boyfriend (and first love) kissing another girl at our prom, just days before we were due to go away on vacation together for a week.
That week’s holiday was hell. We’d fight and fight and fight and then make up, only to fight again a few seconds later. It was awful. It came to a breaking point when he said some really harsh things to me, and I stormed out and headed straight for the beach. I’ve had a fairly rough childhood, and all of this was getting to me. Although I’m ashamed to say it now, the thought of killing myself was at the forefront of my mind.
I went to the deserted beach, and I began to walk toward a huge cliff. My way out, I thought. I was hysterical, crying, sobbing, and wailing. I couldn’t see anyone around, but then again, I wasn’t in any state to notice anyone else.
At that moment, I felt someone tap me on my shoulder. It was a man of about 25, well groomed, with translucent skin and beautiful blue eyes. He asked me if I was okay, but he transmitted these words somehow silently, because looking back, I cannot remember him ever uttering a word. I began to tell him everything—everything. We walked farther, me pouring my heart out to him all the while. We sat down and I continued, telling him everything that had happened to me since the age of 12, when my parents had divorced. As I kept talking, he gently guided me back toward the beach house I was staying in with my boyfriend. We reached the trail that would take me there from the beach.
He stopped and turned me toward him. I realized that I’d been talking nonstop for more than two hours. I began to apologize, and I thanked him for listening, all in the same breath. I told him that I should go because my boyfriend would be getting worried, and then I hugged him. He still didn’t say anything, and I remember thinking that this was a little bizarre.
I turned to leave, ran up the beach a bit, and then turned around to wave good-bye. But when I looked back, the beach was empty. I walked back down to where I had just stood with him and looked around. Nothing. I closed my eyes, thinking I was going mad, and shook my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw that there was only one set of footprints trailing up the beach along the path this man and I had walked. I felt really weird at this point and ran back to the house. I never spoke a word of what happened that day on the beach to anyone.
I have become more of a spiritual person because of this occurrence, and I continue to search for more meaning in my life. I speak to my angel all the time, and although he hasn’t “appeared” again, I have never been as desperate as I was on that day at the beach. I get little signs every now and again, but usually only when I ask for them.
OVERFLOWING WITH JOY
by Nancy Kimes
The year was 1980. It was an unusually hot day in the middle of the summer, a day I will never forget! I was very depressed. Nothing seemed to be going right in my life, including a relationship I was desperately hanging on to. My life had no plan, no direction. I was looking for a way out, so I asked God for help. I needed to know that I was here for a reason. I wanted to be able to help myself and others. At the time, that wish didn’t look very promising. I cried as I spoke to God, as if He were standing beside me.
Then there was a knock at my door. Oh, who is that? I thought. Should I answer? The knocks continued. I finally opened the door, with tearstains on my face. Before me stood a man around 30, handsome, with a bright smile and a clipboard under his arm. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and dark trousers. His sleeves were rolled up a few folds. He said he was sorry to bother me but wondered if he could have a glass of water. I couldn’t refuse him, as it was hot as blazes out there. I asked him if he would like some ice, also, and he said, “Yes, that would be fine.”
As I turned on the faucet, the heaviness I had felt seemed to be lightening. He finished his glass of water, and I asked him if he would like some more. He said yes, with much appreciation in his voice. So I poured him a second drink, again with ice. This time I started to feel like something was filling up inside of me. I noticed that my mood, my depression, was lifting. I was feeling better! The man finished his second drink, and I asked him if he would like another. He was still thirsty!
So, as before, I started to pour a third glass of water. I experienced an overflowing of joy, and spontaneously thought of a beautiful biblical scripture: “Those who thirst after righteousness … shall be filled.”
Who is this man, and why is he having this profoundly positive effect on me? I suddenly wondered. He finished his water and seemed satisfied.
He thanked me warmly and left. As I shut the door, I felt a peaceful inner certainty that my answers would soon come, that I had a purpose and I wasn’t finished here. I dashed to the kitchen window to see which direction the man had gone, but he was nowhere to be seen. He could not have disappeared from my view that fast! Then within the deepest part of me, I knew that he was an angel in disguise.
My life changed that day. A whole new world opened up to me—one of love, forgiveness, listening to others, seeing myself through others’ eyes, and having the ability to help myself through helping others. Now that I think about it, whenever something happens and I find myself completely overwhelmed, I feel an unmistakable presence within or around me that gives me the strength and courage to face the challenge and move on, knowing that I will be fully protected.
HEAVEN HELPED ME
by Carol Pizzi
On September 14, 1995, while driving to work, I started to experience a tightening in my chest and pain that was going up in my throat. Having already passed right by the hospital, I decided to try to make it to the office and have someone take me to the emergency room. However, after driving a few more blocks, I started to feel very weak and had to pull the car into a deserted strip-mall parking lot. This was all happening at around 6:50 A.M., and none of the stores were open.
Just then, a man appeared, and I asked him to call an ambulance, as I was continuing to have chest pains and trouble breathing. I remember him going into one of the stores to make the call. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital, where they performed a cardiac cauterization. After they found a blocked artery, I underwent angioplasty.
After spending time at home recuperating, I returned to the strip mall, trying to locate and thank the gentleman who had called the ambulance. Since I had seen him go into one of the stores before their opening hours, I figured he must work at one of them. All of the store managers told me that no one would be there at that time of the morning and that no one of that description worked for them. I could not find my guardian angel, but I’m sure that’s who he was.
IT PAYS TO PRAY
by Anonymous
It was an ordinary spring day, and my husband asked me to help move our older Pontiac Firebird out of the carport area, as it was blocked by a hedge and wasn’t accessible to the truck that would tow it to the shop. As my husband pushed, I was to steer it out of the spot. Well, as he was pushing and I was steering, I found that he was unable to handle the job as he’d thought. His back was strained, and I was trying to steer the car while seated inside. I felt that I created more weight, so I decided to get out of the car and help push, too. The only problem was that I couldn’t maneuver the vehicle and brake as well. This was an enormously unwieldy car—a 1976 Firebird has a lot of heavy metal—and we felt as if this was unbelievably hard to manage. Just as we would get the car to move, I would jump inside to brake before it hit my husband.
I started to pray in my heart, and I asked my angels to help me. While I was stating these requests inwardly, my husband was trying to push the car, which was going nowhere. Just as I was in the middle of my prayer, I looked up and saw the most interesting manifestation of my entire life. A man was running from what appeared to be the fence by my house. As I watched him come toward us, I noti
ced that he turned, almost as if he were feeling his way toward the car. When his loving eyes met mine, he nodded as if to say intuitively, “I am here!” He approached the car and started to help push it. My husband was totally shocked to see this man helping, but the two of them managed to push the car into place.
I hit the brakes and shifted into PARK. I noticed that the man—who had blond hair, blue eyes, and a beautiful golden-bronze tan all over—was shaking my husband’s hand and saying something to him that I couldn’t hear. That’s when I got out of the car and walked over, just in time to see him turn and leave, running in the same direction he’d come from and disappearing from our sight.
Focusing on my husband, I noticed that his eyes were watering, and I asked if he was all right. He couldn’t speak, but finally after a few seconds, he murmured that the love emanating from that man had been so incredible. I asked him what the man had said. My husband turned to look at me. “He said, ‘It pays to pray.’”
We never saw the man again, but we have never forgotten this amazing and wondrous occurrence.
Chapter 4
HEALING MESSAGES FROM MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS
WILLIAM WHITE
by Dawn Elizabeth Allmandinger
In the 1980s, I was married to a man who physically abused me. We both worked at the same restaurant—I was a waitress, and he was a busboy. He would say mean things to me in front of my co-workers, and once I came into work with a black eye covered with heavy makeup.
One day, a man and woman whom I had never seen before entered the restaurant. The man started to ask me things about myself, and then he said that I was special. But at the time I didn’t think that was true because my ex-husband had always told me otherwise, as had my father.
He asked me what I thought my mission in life was. Without thinking, I said, “Well, I’m God’s helper.” The man told me that not many people know that about themselves. He asked me how I thought I helped others. I told him that I hugged people, and I could feel what was going on inside of them.
He told me that I was right, and that I should give the woman who was with him (his sister) a hug and tell them what I felt. I hugged her, and I told her I felt she wasn’t happy and that she was going through some kind of move that she was uneasy about. The woman confirmed that she was going through a move, wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, and wasn’t really happy about it. I couldn’t believe that I had gotten it right!
The man told me that he felt I was a healer, which I had been told twice before, but I hadn’t thought I was special enough. Now, these two people didn’t know me from Adam, and the man seemed to know things about me and my life that no one did. He told me that I wouldn’t be with my husband much longer, which at that time I didn’t believe. I really thought of marriage as a “till death do us part” commitment.
The man then asked me if I wanted his phone number, and I said yes. What’s strange about this is that the restaurant was really busy with the lunch rush, yet the only people seated in my section were the man and his sister. That gave me time to talk with them.
So, I opened my address book to a blank page, and he wrote: “William White, 758-6055.” Then he said, “Look at my name. See, it says ‘Will I Am’!” William asked me to call him so that I could join a group of helpers and healers.
A few days later, I dialed the number, and all I heard was a recording that said the number had been changed and that there was no new number.
I did end up divorcing my husband, as William predicted. I am now ready to forgive my dad for the abuse, as well as my ex-husband.
I have looked for William White ever since then, with no luck. I truly believe that he was an angel in human form trying to guide me back on the path to peace.
GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS
by Patrice Karst
I was driving on Interstate 10, heading west toward Pacific Coast Highway, on a Saturday afternoon. I was listening to music, and my small son, Eli, was asleep in the backseat. I was lost in thought when the car in front of me slammed on its brakes! I was going at least 50 miles per hour, and I hit the brakes hard in an attempt not to careen into the car. But it was obvious that there wasn’t enough time to stop. It all seemed surreal as I found myself heading straight for the car in front of me at a high speed. It was terrifying! I was thinking, Oh God, is this where I die? What about Eli? Oh God, please, no!
I crashed into the car with a great impact. Afterward, I was shaking uncontrollably and was afraid to move, lest I be confronted with the horror of seeing blood, bodies, and glass everywhere. But when I summoned the courage to look around, instead of witnessing a tragedy, I saw a miraculous scene. My son, Eli, was still asleep! I was completely uninjured, which, considering how hard I’d hit the other car, seemed utterly impossible.
As I was considering this unlikely situation, a dark-haired woman with a very thick unrecognizable accent opened my door, and I stepped out of the car. She threw her arms around me and said these exact words: “We are all going too fast. You are fine. Let us remember to slow down.” Then she said, “May God bless you!” and she got back in her own vehicle and drove off. I stood there in a state of shock.
My car was completely unscathed, yet I had just had a huge collision. Not only that, somehow my vehicle was parked safely on the right shoulder, completely out of harm’s way, even though I hadn’t driven it there! I’d never moved it after the crash. I should have been in the middle of the freeway, with cars swerving to avoid me.
Miracle? Angel? Call it what you want. I just know that the mysterious lady and that experience made no sense to me. We are all going too fast. Quite a metaphor for this crazy, intense pace we’ve set for ourselves. I got back in my car and slowly drove home. God was there that day for Eli and me—I’m certain of it.
AN ANGEL IN NEW YORK CITY
by Anonymous
I decided to follow my fiancé (who soon became my husband) to the New York area in 1995. We settled in an apartment that we could afford in New Jersey. This proved disastrous. There were signs early on that this was not necessarily a good decision: I was involved in a head-on collision before our move; and other disasters included getting my car stolen the day I started my new job, and having men expose themselves to me on the various subway trains I would use to commute to Manhattan each day. All in all, my husband and I had our cars stolen four times within a one-year period.
Finally, my husband lost his job and couldn’t find another one with comparable pay. He decided to move back to the Washington, D.C., area, which had a thriving job market. I remained in New York City until a job transfer came through for me. During this time, I lived with a friend in Manhattan.
One day a man approached me after I had parked on the street, and loudly exclaimed that I was in his parking space. My friend who was with me told the man that it was a public spot. The man became quite angry. Against my better judgment, I left my car there. My inner voice told me to drive away, but my friend convinced me that I needed to stand up for what was right and not let the guy bully me.
Later in the day, I returned alone to find that my car had a flat tire. Someone had taken a knife and slashed it repeatedly. I cracked. I knew that this was the result of the parking incident, since the man had threatened violence when I’d left the car earlier that day. I drove my car, crying all the way, and called a roadside service to assist me in replacing the tire. I was totally hysterical at this point. The city had finally defeated me, and I felt hopeless.
After calling for assistance, I carefully scanned the area in all directions for the service truck that was on its way. I had parked in a somewhat secluded location that I considered safe because it had open areas where I could see people coming. I believed that the guy who had slashed my tire might have followed me.
Suddenly, I heard a woman’s voice behind me asking about my car. I did not see this person approach and was quite startled because I had been vigilantly looking all around. Crying, I told her the story. She was ve
ry comforting the entire time, while listening intently. She said that God would not have put us all here if there wasn’t room enough for everyone, and that He would always provide for me, be it a parking spot or anything else. She also told me that I would soon receive a great blessing that would heal the entire situation with my tire.
At that moment, I saw the service truck approach. A second later, I turned to thank the woman for being so kind, but she had completely disappeared! There wasn’t anywhere she could have hidden and no building nearby she could have gone into. A great wave of happiness and comfort came over me at that time. I truly believe that the woman was an angel. There is no other explanation.
The blessing she told me about also came true. The very next day, I received an award for $50 from an employee-recognition program. This was the exact cost of replacing the tire that had been destroyed. In addition to that, it boosted my self-esteem! A true miracle had occurred during a time when I thought nothing good could happen.
“EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY”
by Dorothy Durand
My mother, Marjorie, told me a story about an incident that occurred when I was an infant.
Tragedy weighed heavily upon her. At age 22, she had lost her brother, her mother, and my father (who died at 31); and I was gravely ill. The doctors suggested a new therapy that had never been tried on infants. They gave me a 50-50 chance of success if she consented to the treatment. If she declined, I would surely die.
So my mother signed the consent form, walked out of the hospital, and went straight to the harbor, where she planned to drown herself. Everyone she had ever loved had been taken away from her. She believed I would die and that she had nothing to live for.
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