AN ADAGE A DAY â—½ ENCOURAGEMENT
An Angel in Disguise
by Carole Gilbert
Have you ever heard the song, “Angels Among Us,” by Alabama or Jamey Johnson? Look it up and listen. I do believe there are angels among us.
When I was in high school, my boyfriend worked showing the kids movies at our small-town country club so their parents could play golf. Occasionally, I went with him. One Sunday, we headed to town on his lunch break in his old flat nose van. He hit some loose gravel driving around a curve and lost control and we flipped, landing back on the tires with the back bumper hooked on a barbed wire fence. I can still see the front windshield shatter underneath us as we rolled forward. Since this was before seat belts, we were thrown all around until the van stopped. When we came to a halt, I could feel blood running down my face and I could only see out of one eye. My boyfriend jumped out of the van and pulled me out. It was also before cell phones, so we looked left and right down the long country road and saw nothing or no one to help. He started kicking the van trying to get it off the fence so we could go to the hospital. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a green car. Green was our favorite color. Remember young love? You have a favorite color, song, and just about anything else you can find in common that shows how you’re meant to be together.
Inside this green car was a small old man. He never said much but proceeded to help. How could we be so lucky in the middle of nowhere? I wondered if he was an angel in disguise. At that time, I didn’t know if I believed in angels. But somehow, the guys got the van off the fence and my boyfriend asked the man if he could follow us to take the van to a friend's house (that was on the way to the hospital.) The little old man simply said, “Yes.”
The van was in such bad shape. The top leaned to the right, but it still moved. I remember riding in the man’s car that seemed as old as he was. When we got to the hospital, he walked in with us. The nurses immediately started tending to me, so he said goodbye and left. The funny thing is that after telling our story of what happened and about the little old man, no one in the hospital remembered seeing him. Being a small town, my family wanted to thank him. But even the sheriff couldn’t find him or a green car.
Was he an angel in disguise? Were we just lucky? “Heaven only knows.” What do you believe?
You hear this idiom “an angel in disguise” periodically, and it does have biblical origin. It refers to someone doing something helpful or giving something to someone in need. Many people fit into this description and are referred to as an angel in disguise. Could some actually be angels? The Old Testament tells of angels, and the New Testament does also, and we still speak of them today.
Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
I believe in my heart that this small old man in the green car was an angel in disguise, a total angel among us, and he came to render aid to us that day. This is November, the month of Thanksgiving. It’s the month we are to be thankful and give to others, just like an angel in disguise. Happy Thanksgiving!