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Ever got that email where it says that friends are only angels without their wings?  I like to think there is some truth to that.  We all are the angel that is sent to someone else, whether we know it or not. 

I heard the story told one time of how a woman always bragged about what God has done for her.  Once a neighbor who was an atheist went and bought a bag full of groceries and laid them down on her doorstep in the middle of the night.  The next day she was bragging about how God brought her some groceries when she didn’t have anything to eat in the house. The atheist called her an old fool and then revealed that he was the one that bought the groceries and put them on her doorstep. She turned and said, “I prayed to the Lord to supply my need and He sent the devil to do it.”

If you don’t believe in Divine intervention maybe this true story will at least make you think about it.  I usually travel one or two ways to work even though there are more than a half-dozen ways to go.  There are only one or two gas stations that I ever stop at to get gas or a drink or anything else I may want or need.

One morning on my way to work I decided to take a route I never travel. I decided to stop at a station I never stop at to get gas.  Nothing out of the ordinary you may think, just a different route to break the monotony of seeing the same scenery every morning.

As I pulled into the station to get my gas I noticed what you and I would call a bum standing at the outside faucet washing his hands and face and getting a drink of water. He had a big backpack with him so I presumed he might have been traveling. We made eye contact and I quickly turned focusing my attention to the gas pump. My thought was I hope he doesn’t come over here and bum me for some money.  While I pumped my gas sure enough he came to where I was. But ironically he didn’t ask for any money or anything else.  He made a comment of how good the water was when he didn’t have any.  One thing my father always taught us children; if you want someone to leave you alone all you have to do is agree with them and let them go.  That’s what I did. I just agreed with him so he would go on his way. 

I went into the store to pay for my gas and the conversation between the employees was the bum outside.  I simply paid for my gas and went back out.  But as I sat in my truck and fastened my seatbelt it was that little voice that spoke to me so clearly.  Give him all the money you’ve got.  No. I wasn’t being held at gunpoint. I was being held at Spirit point.  Either way if we don’t do what is being told then there will be consequences to pay.  He was nowhere to be found but without hesitation I reached into my wallet and took out all the cash I had.  (I’m a poor man so I never have much cash to carry, if any at all.)

As I drove around the back of the station I saw him sitting on a curb resting. I pulled up and handed him the money and told him it wasn’t much but it would help him on his way. He told me he appreciated it and if he saw anyone in need he would help them as well.  I guess that is what you call, ‘Paying it forward’. 

Some may say that was only coincidence, maybe it was. But as I began contemplating it I asked the question: what made me on that particular morning go that particular route? What made me stop at that particular station? There were others, I could have stopped at any of them. 

We all are somebody else’s angel. Everyone holds a key to someone else. You just may be the difference maker in someone’s life when no one else can or could.  That’s why it is important to make everyone around you no matter where you are at to feel loved.  Because we never know whose key we hold and whose door we may unlock.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2)

My mother used to have an old saying, “You can’t keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.” 

I haven’t given that much thought until I heard the pastor say those exact same words one Sunday morning while preaching.  For all you ministers and Sunday school teachers out there, some people do pay attention during service.   And of course the wheels in my mind got to turning over an interpretation of the saying.

We can’t control what other people say or do, not even our children.  But we can still love them, care for them and pray for them.  Not to long ago on my way to work a car pulled out in front of me. I didn’t have to slam on my brakes but I did have to slow down.  My first thought was, “You stupid idiot!” Then before I got to work it happened a couple of more times that same morning.  My thought before I got to work was, “What? Am I driving an invisible car?” But then I tried to put myself in their shoes just for a moment.  Maybe they were on their way to the hospital. Maybe they were late for work for the hundredth time and the next one would cost them their job.  Maybe they were just having a bad morning. 

You and I both know there are solutions to every ‘Maybe’ I mentioned.  But if we had a genie in a bottle would our wish be another insult to add to their misery?  I’ve always heard it said, ‘Misery loves company’.  So I did something for that first car that pulled out in front of me, and the others, as well. After I called them a stupid idiot of course.  I pointed my finger at them and said, “Hope you have a great and wonderful day.”  Yep, I said a prayer for them.

Many people would curse and swear at them, probably give them what I call a one-finger-salute then carry that burdensome grudge into their workplace.  Before you know it the day is gone and you’ve had a miserable day simply because you let someone else get beside you.  Since you had such a miserable day at work and because one, two or three people cut you off in traffic now you go home and you continue to carry that burden into a place that should be a place of comfort and love.  Instead it too becomes a battle zone between spouses and/or children.

How did it occur? Because when a bird flew over our head we let it build a nest in our hair.  When something happened that we couldn’t control that affected us in some miniscule way we let it grow within us.  How do you get things to grow? We feed them. All day we fed that anger and eventually let it control us. And as it grew it spread onto others. 

 I don’t know if C.S. Lewis or Martin Luther is the one actually credited for the originality of the old saying but I never met either of them but I knew my mother. And she, not C.S. Lewis or Martin Luther, was the influence on teaching me this priceless lesson. Who are we going to teach and be an influence to?

 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. (Prov. 16:32)