April 18, 2007

[Rev. Doc]

God's Messengers

"Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?"
Hebrews 1:14

John Mustain is a popular radio talk show host on WNWS-FM in Jackson, Tennessee. He's also a devoted husband and father, a writer, security director and a minister in the Church of Christ. Given all these accomplishments, we could assume John had always followed a straight path of good behavior. But we would be wrong!

John was a teenager in the '70's, raised in a very religious family. But he was more interested in hot cars and pretty girls. "My faith was very superficial," he says, "consisting mostly of a strict adherence to the rules---except when my parents weren't looking."

Shortly after getting his driver's license, John landed a well-paying job at a local grocery store chain. It wasn't long before he talked his dad into letting him buy a motorcycle. "Now, my independence was complete," John explains. "I earned my own money. I was buying my own vehicle. I felt like an adult." (And at six feet and 250 pounds, he certainly looked like one!) So one morning when John's mother forbade him to visit his girlfriend after school that day, he was immediately rebellious. "I'm going, and nothing you can say or do will change my mind!" he shouted. His mother, stunned, began to cry. John had never openly defied her. But now her son was storming out the back door. "I'll be home by ten!" he shouted over his shoulder.

After school, John went to his girlfriend's house in a nearby town about 30 minutes away. The teens spent the evening together watching television, "and trying to stay as far away from her parents as possible," John says. "I was so wrapped up in her that I paid no attention to the time. Finally at 9:45, I headed for home."

Home was, of course, thirty minutes away, not fifteen. But John decided he could arrive by ten p.m. if he rode fast. He decided to take a "shortcut" across a highway closed for construction. Veering around the yellow-and-black striped barricades, John increased his speed to about 70 miles per hour. Just a few moments later, he lost control and the motorcycle began to flip.

"Everything slowed to a crawl," John says. "I hit the pavement, head first, and tumbled down the highway, head over heels. I remember seeing the moon pass my knees! And as I rolled to a stop, I remember the extreme silence of the night." John's clothes had been torn off, he was bleeding from head to toe and could barely move. He was also in the middle of nowhere, on a detoured highway, with no hope of traffic coming by. Would he die, he wondered hazily, before the road crews discovered him the next morning?

"As I lay there drifting in and out of consciousness, I saw two very bright lights approaching," John says. "It was a vehicle---and I needed to stop it." Shakily, John stumbled to his feet, stood swaying in the middle of the road and waved his arms for a moment, then fell again onto the pavement. But the driver had apparently seen him, for the car slowed, then stopped. It was a recreational vehicle.

A man stepped out of the RV and quickly assessed the situation. He lifted John's huge motorcycle to the side of the road, then walked over to John. He leaned over and easily picked John up in his arms, then carried him to the RV and gently laid him in the back. Was the man old, young? John couldn't concentrate. Everything seemed to be happening a million miles away.... It was the last he remembered until they reached his girlfriend's house. "Her surprised mother opened the door, and the man carried me inside and laid me down on their couch," John says. He passed out again.

Later at the hospital, John and his mother heard an amazing story. His girlfriend's mother explained that, with hardly a word of explanation, the stranger had deposited John on their couch, and while the women were caring for John, had simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

The incident was a turning point for John; he became far more serious about his behavior, his respect for his mother and especially his faith in God. But today despite his role in his church, John is a major skeptic when it comes to miracles. "Yet I have thought about these events over the years, and have found several things that I cannot explain:"

For example, how did John escape a 70 miles-per-hour crash with only minor cuts and abrasions? Why was the stranger driving on a barricaded road? How could he be strong enough to move the motorcycle off the road, and carry John in his arms? How did he know where John's girlfriend lived? ("While it is possible I could have awakened in the RV and told him, I don't remember doing that.") How did he leave without the women noticing his departure?

Finally, why didn't the man stick around and see how John was doing? Unless he already knew. "I believe in angelic beings, although I am skeptical as to the popular view of their interventions," John says. "But I can't help but wonder if my rescuer that night wasn't an angel."

Prayer: Thank God for the many miracles He performs that we may never even know about or understand in our lives.

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."
~John Milton