Angel Encounters
By Ellie Braun-Haley

Traffic Patrol Angels

I wonder if God sends out traffic patrol angels? I think I have one and possibly more. I notice that I've really been keeping my traffic patrollers working overtime! 

I remember when I was in my early teens and I had gone from our small town to the big city to compete in a dance contest. In those days it was called Jiving. On the way home the car I was in went out of control. There were no seat belts in those days and as the car rolled again and again, the door banged open, I was thrown toward it. A young man who was with me and was very athletic grabbed me and held me in the car. If I had tumbled out I would likely have been dead. When I look back on it, it was a funny set of circumstances that put me in that particular car with that young man. Now I am beginning to think perhaps they were not coincidences. 

Years later I was living in another town and had to drive into a different large city to teach for a night class at a College. A full blown snow storm was in progress as I headed home. I was driving quite cautiously peering into the black nothingness, through the furious swishing of windshield wipers.  I was on a well traveled highway, in good condition and had my choice of two driving lanes with full shoulders on either side. I felt I should be okay. Suddenly as I came out on the other side of an overpass the car hit black ice and cold fear hit me, colder than the outdoors and knotted my insides. I knew I had a death grip on the wheel as I wrestled to keep the car from heading for the ditch. The car lurched from side to side, sliding and weaving. Why couldn't I just get it straight? 

Fear explored my brain in a race faster than the car itself! This was always a busy highway, day or night there was never a let up. To shoot over to the other lanes would be an invitation to death!! Desperately I struggled to keep the car righted but it slid sickeningly toward the ditch and the traffic lanes on the other side. I called out loud to the only help I could, "God, please help me!" 

As the car slid straight toward the ditch I released my grip on the wheel and turned the problem over to HIM. There was nothing I could do. I had lost the battle and knew it. I could sense movement and then nothing. 

There was no sound and no sensation. I did not feel the car move nor hit anything. I felt as though I was in sound studio, with any possible sound being sucked away. It was so completely quiet. Sort of like Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence!  I sat in complete darkness and wondered where I was. I stepped out of the car, puzzled as to what may have taken place. The car was entirely covered in a blanket of white snow and now it was sideways blocking both lanes of oncoming traffic. I looked over the roof of the little vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, and saw cars in both lanes heading straight for me. 

It was dark and my car sat there dead, no headlights to warn the unsuspecting travelers. I stood in the darkness, waving frantically in an effort to warn the drivers who were rushing straight at me.  Unbelievably all oncoming traffic saw me in time and moved over to the shoulders to get by. I pushed my car over to the side of the road and tentatively tried the starter. The motor caught. I traveled cautiously along listening to the motor. Everything sounded as it should. Of course now I was traveling in the wrong direction on the other side of the road. I made it to the first crossroad, got turned back around in the direction I wanted to travel in and once again headed for home. 

Later, the car was checked. There was not even grass caught on the undercarriage from traveling through the ditch. There were no signs that this car had been in and out of a ditch! For years after, each time I went under that overpass I thanked God for hearing me that night. 

A few years later I had moved out to the country to live and my husband had to be away in Mexico. We had a rough winter that year and the roads were tough to travel on. I was driving home one evening and the last mile and a half was gravel. I was glad of that hoping I would get a bit more traction. I was a half mile from home when the car went out of control. It happened at the worst spot on the road where the ditches were deep. Suddenly the car was moving sideways and then actually backwards! 

In the next few seconds I saw the car drop over the high embankment and crash into the ditch. It was weird because I knew it had not happened yet and still it was like a picture show in my mind. I called out, "Heavenly Father please help me!" 

I felt the car not only stop but begin to travel forward. I was not functioning. I was not touching anything. I knew where my help came from. I cried grateful tears as I made my way home. I just kept on saying over and over, "Oh thank you God, Oh thank you. Thank you so much." I wept grateful tears. 

Within a week, on the same road, yet traveling in the other direction, again the car hit a sheet of ice. I was heading off the country road on to a secondary highway and I knew the car could not make the turn. Then I noticed a bald spot of highway where there was no ice. I felt if I could just head for that spot and then make the turn the car would be all right. 

I hit what I thought was bald pavement. It wasn't! The car could not make the turn and began a sickening lurch toward the ditch. Again I called on the Lord for help, "God help me please!" 

The vehicle should have been rolling into the ditch, instead I felt it stop and then I felt it being moved forward. It was back on the highway and moving in the right direction. All was well. 

My body shook with sobs over the wonder of His love and His care. Tears coursed down my cheeks as I thanked Him over and over. For the next six miles, I talked to God, expressing my thankfulness.  

I know that I have been so fortunate. I know that I have been blessed with His love, but I think I must really tire out His angels! (tire out his angels.?. could that be a pun?) 

There is truly power in prayer. Sometimes His answer is instantaneous and sometimes He gives us what we need, which may not have been exactly what we asked for. The thing is, He's always listening and He is in control. 

Ellie has blessed Egogahan by publishing her angelic accounts here. Please visit Ellie's site, Angels on Earth Ellie is the author of "A Little Door, A Little Light" a  wonderful and delightful book on  communications that people have experienced with  loved ones who have crossed over into the next life. You may contact Ellie at the Email or Guest Book link below.


Visit Ellie's memorial page for her son, Jason

    

Music: Borne on Angels Wings
© 1999 Bruce DeBoer

 

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