Let It Happen

A friend of mine was driving on the thruway on a rainy afternoon. There was a man in a business suit, carrying a brief case walking in the breakdown lane on the thruway, attempting to keep dry under his umbrella. My friend pulled over and asked the man if he needed a ride. The man accepted her offer.

Shortly after getting back on the thruway, the man looked at my friend and said, "Let it happen." A car had crossed the thruway from the opposite side, passing directly in front of my friend's car. My friend did as she was instructed and 'let it happen' : her car hit theirs. All of the young passengers and driver in the other car were killed. My friend didn't have a scratch on her - nothing, she was completely fine. She got out of the car to check on the people of the other car. But then she remembered her passenger. She turned back towards her car, but the man wasn't in it. She wondered where he could have possibly gone. Only a few seconds had passed. He wasn't anywhere walking on the thruway. She began searching for him in the cars that were all stopped because of the accident. She was worried that he might have been hurt. She was worried about him getting to where it was he wanted to go. She looked diligently, but he was no where to be found.

A few days after my friend's accident, I visited her. She told me she believed the business man she gave a ride to was really an angel. She said she normally wouldn't have given a ride to a stranger, but the way he was dressed and walking in the rain helped her to trust him. She said that she felt the angel gave her graces to obey him, to understand that this was supposed to happen, that she wasn't to blame for the deaths of those in the other car. She said she felt protected and completely loved.

I believe my friend was right - she was visited by an angel who saw to it that what was supposed to happen happened. In the process, he protected my friend and left her filled with grace and love from our Lord. To me, the blessings given to my friend are more convincing that this man was an angel than his disappearing act. How could it be humanly possible for my friend to walk away from this accident unshaken and completely at peace with a great sense of being loved?

I can't explain the deaths of the young people in the other car. I don't know, my friend doesn't know their story. There is so much we don't know, but our Lord knows. "Thank You, Lord, that You know. Help us trust in You. Please console the families of the young people who died - such a tragedy for them. Oh, Lord, help them; hold them close to You. I love You, Lord. Jesus, I trust in You."