Guardian Angels? by GJ

An e-mail received the other day implied that maybe there are guardian angels. It got me to thinking a little, which can be hard work these days.

Sometime in the 1960's, Jean, I, and the two girls, probably 13 and 15, were driving to a lake in Missouri for a week's vacation-within-a-vacation. (Teachers and their kids have summer off, but usually stay home most of that time.)

It was very dark and I was behind a semi-truck as we started up a steep incline, probably a foothill to some mountains. It wasn't long before the semi slowed a lot. Impatient to get to our destination, I "peeked around" the truck, and the driver waved me to come on ahead. What a lucky break, I thought. The car I was driving was not particularly new, and had only average power, so it was a struggle to pass the truck. Right alongside, suddenly lights came on from a logging truck headed straight for us. Panic time. I actually recall thinking, in a flash, "I don't know what is over there (on my left,) ditch, trees, or sheer cliff, but whatever it is, it beats that which is bearing down us!"

I swung to the left and my lights illuminated a wide, flat, smooth bank of hardened dirt. I slowed to a stop and wiped sweat off my forehead. The logging truck zoomed past us, causing the car to sway...a lot!

The semi had stopped, too, over on his lane. The driver got out and ran over to us, asking if we were all right? I said yes, and he wiped sweat from his forehead. He remarked that the idiot in the other truck sure should have known better than to race down a mountain with lights off. We agreed and thanked him for his concern. It was at some point during those last ten seconds or so that the girls woke up in the back seat and wanted to know where we were.

Was there a "guardian angel" watching over our little family? I don't know, of course. But if I add this near-miss to some others in my 81 years, I must say that I won't argue the point. I subscribe to the belief that God in Heaven has absolute control. If he wants us to have such things, who is to thwart Him? Why else such a POPULAR phrase as, "Thank God?"