Angels Unaware

Hebrews 13:2
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."

Did I entertain an angel this week?

I was driving in my regular hurried fashion, not following the speed limit by any means, when I noticed a car to the side of the road. My first instinct is always the same: inspect the tires to see if they have a flat...

(Once I was driving from Point A to Point B and I ran out of gas. Not thinking I had actually run out of gas and in an attempt to start my car, I ran the battery dead. This was at 7 pm. I called people for help, three police cars passed and still I was on my own. By 1 AM, I was at Point B sans car. I then vowed to help anyone on the side of the road. I've picked up hitchhikers, changed tires, and given a jump to many a person. And if you can't tell, I'm still alive.)

...and the car did, in fact, have a flat. Additionally, the gray hair of the elderly gentleman (he was AT LEAST 59...) :) suggested that he could use a spare set of hands as well as a a spare tire. Minor dilemma: I was heading north and he in the southbound direction. With a cement wall as the median. I took the next exit hoping to find a quick turn around- which, if you ever REALLY need one you can NEVER find- and I found a loop ushering me southbound immediately. Of course, I maneuvered a beautiful triple lane change.

I don't know what it is about people these days, always wary of other people, but when I arrived at the man's car, he was just getting his jack out- you know, the kind that comes with the car...

(As a freshman, I was changing my brakes in the Lawlor parking lot at Cedarville. I had removed the front left tire and not having any car stands, I was relying on my 1990 Buick LeSabre's stock jack from the trunk. You could fit a whole lot more than a standard jack in that baby's trunk! So as I was lying on my back inspecting the rotor, I heard this faint creeaak and said to myself, "Self, I don't like that noise..." so I picked my head off the ground preparing to move out from under the car when the jack folded in half and the rotor grazed the right side of my head and found its resting place more than an inch into the pavement. Fortunately, I slipped out from under the car without actually getting hurt. My next stop was to purchase a real jack, jack stands, and made sure that there were working jumper cables in my trunk.)

...and we all know how I don't trust those jack, I offered my help. To my chagrin, he refused my help. I even asked if he just wanted an extra set of hands, which he declined. I also noted that he had a nice set of golf clubs in the back seat (so maybe he wasn't an angel after all?).

But what if the point of this exercise was not to demonstrate my superior skills in changing a tire? What if it was a test to see my availability? What if I was entertaining an angel unaware? Perhaps it was a test of my busy life versus helping another's life. And what if he was just a normal elderly man who didn't want the help of a stranger? And the thought that kept permeating my days of late: what if his jack folded on him? I certainly couldn't have just sat there in my car on a busy highway during rush hour. I trust the Lord kept this kind old man safe. Or I trust that this angel returned the message that I went out of my way to help a stranger in need. Either way, I was glad I could help.