Christmas
Angel by Joyce Noel Wyatt
Unaware
N A NEVER-to-be-forgotten discovered in those few hours changed and that the car quit in a place where
O
day in October 1972, I my life forever. people would help him. In spite of his
came face-to-face with an We learned the man’s wife remained in grim circumstances, he had a sense of
angel—not an angel with the hospital in critical condition, and his peace about him, even a joy that was
wings and dressed in five children were farmed out to different indescribable. Did I say he was poor?
white, but in the form of a small, slender- families for care during this period of crisis. It was in those few hours that I dis-
built, dark-haired man driving an old He had a time limit to get the baby trans- covered we were, indeed, in the presence
dilapidated Nash. My husband, Ron, and ported and buried, and now his car had to of an angel . . . sent to us out of the blue
I had a 3-year-old son, and our baby girl be repaired. Additionally, his money sup- to give us a life-changing lesson. Sudden-
was due the next month. Our finances ply was even less than ours. What in the ly, our worries seemed so trivial. The sun
were so low we couldn’t pay the bug man world will he do? I wondered. I felt an over- would come up in the morning, I rea-
who came about two weeks later to spray whelming sense of compassion. soned. I experienced a new kind of peace
our house. Although the cost was only I held back the tears, but I need not deep down inside, a peace that has cov-
$12.50, it was beyond our reach. Times have bothered to shed tears anyway. He ered us like a blanket in all of our subse-
were hard, and our worries were mount- had no pitiful story to tell. His deep hazel quent trials. What greater gift could we
ing every day. What would happen at eyes reflected love like I had never seen have received just in time for Christmas?
Christmas? We couldn’t help but wonder. before in a human being. Unbelievably, And to think . . . an angel driving an old
But everything changed on that day he showed more concern for us and oth- rundown car delivered it!
in October. ers than about his own problems. He con-
The man, weary and hungry, had dri- tinually expressed his gratitude to God Joyce Noel Wyatt lives with deep faith in
ven exactly 1,000 miles when suddenly for the fact that his wife was still alive, Kodak, Tennessee.
his car quit. In the trunk, his baby girl
lay dead in a casket. She died shortly
after birth, and it was his wife’s desire
for her to be buried in another state
alongside another child the couple had
lost a few years before. The young father
had received a special permit to trans-
port his baby.
As it happened, our path crossed the
path of this man who was grossly poor by
the world’s standards. Ron made arrange-
ments for the old Nash to be repaired,
and in the meantime, brought him to our
house to get something to eat. As he sat
at our table, I sensed there was something
strangely different about him, and what I
18 EVANGEL • DEC 2008
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