Angels (Alexas Photos)
At the corner of State and Madison in the heart of Chicago’s downtown, on a one-way street, two lanes of cars were paused and ready to go as the pedestrian light turned from green to cautionary yellow. The crowd that was surging across the street in front of the cars held back when the light turned yellow. But, thinking that I could make it, I started to cross anyway. Heck, I was young and thought: “I can beat these cars!”
In the instant that I made an intention movement to go for it, an arm from the left flung itself across my chest like a stop gate at a railroad crossing. It was the guy next to me. In the next second the light turned green and the cars roared forward across the pedestrian white lines where I would have been, had that guy not stopped me.
I turned to look at him. “Nice suit,” I thought. He looked steadily at me and said matter-of-factly: ” Duh’ya wanna be a statistic?” The tone was pure Chicagoese.
Ah, I love Chicago. Where could you hear such a succinct way of getting across a point? The point being: I was just about to fling myself in front of two lanes of cars with drivers anxious to score a first out of the pack, a dicey decision that could have cost m my life.
I never saw that guy again and I can’t remember what he looked like except that he had on a business suit and was probably on his way home after a long day at the office. The guy knew immediately that I was unfamiliar with the fundamentals of crossing a busy street in downtown Chicago so he stuck his arm out and issued those memorable words.
I think he was an angel. I know he didn’t look like one but, what do angels look like? Divine intervention swooped down, a life changing moment occurred, and I’m still alive fifty years later. I don’t think it was a coincidence. No, I don’t know what angels look like but that Chicagoan acted like one. He protected me in a moment of danger.
I think God often sends an angel in the form of a human who is there at a defining moment in life. Think of a time when your life was in jeopardy and someone pulled you out of the way. You were about ready to make an awfully bad decision and someone intervened. It could have been just a human rescuer or, just maybe, it was your guardian angel or an anonymous angel.
Remember the scene in the film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” when James Stewart’s character attempts suicide and a pudgy old man pulls him out of the water? They end up in a bar where the unlikely rescuer identifies himself as an angel on a mission “to get my wings.” Stewart looks directly at the smiling old gent and says sadly: “Angel? You look like the kind of angel I’d get!”
I wonder if my guardian angel sometimes wears a brown business suit? The following scripture verse reminds me that God has options in that regard: “For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11)