Two Angels on a Bridge

Last week I was driving home from work and as I pulled off 422 I noticed a car was stalled out in the center lane right in the middle of the bridge. The blinkers were on and the other drivers were swerving and honking and shaking their fists. As I pulled alongside I could see a crying child in a car seat in the back and a panicked young mother behind the wheel. When she told me she had just called triple A, I did a u-turn and pulled up behind her with my blinkers on. I got out and dodged the drivers that were not honking and shaking their fists at me. My plan was to push her up off the bridge and over to the shoulder. Now you can drive a road everyday of your life, but until you walk it, you will never realize how steep or how long it is. Well as I tried to push through the intersection, where the cars were waiting to exit the off ramp, I could feel the car getting heavier, my legs getting weaker, and the light was turning yellow. I put my head down to the frigid air and said, out loud, “God, please give me the strength to get thru the light!”. Just as my legs gave out four hands appeared out of nowhere, “Where we going!”. Two different men had pulled their cars over and jumped behind this woman's car just in time to keep it from rolling back on top of me.

Now I don’t share this story as a testament to my own generosity but as a testimony of the my utter amazement at the kindness of strangers. As a husband and father of two, my decision to help this young woman was a no brain-er. But the two angels that appeared (“Where we going?”), yes, they were definitely heaven sent, got out of two separate cars to help a scary looking guy in a full length black leather trench-coat pushing a car up Township Line Road in the middle of winter. They took a leap of faith, opened themselves up to a stranger, and loved their neighbor.

As we struggle with our own personal challenges, frustrations, doubts, and dreams, we must remember that we are not alone, whether we are pushing a car up a hill, or on a journey of discipleship. We have God, and we have each other.