Phoenix Journal 208 - Four Winds 10

From ANGELS ON EARTH, Mar/Apr 1997, Guideposts, 39 Seminary Hill Rd., Carmel, NY 10512,
[quoting:]
We had been married for 12 years when my husband and I began to have serious problems in our relationship.
We went to a counselor, but nothing changed. I didn’t think I could go on living if we divorced.
On a Sunday in February I drove to the shopping center to buy pills and alcohol. Coming out of the
drugstore I glanced around self-consciously. The strangest feeling came over me. Then I saw someone I
knew; my friend Jim, who worked at our church.
“Are you all right?” he asked. I tightened my grip on the brown paper bag and didn’t answer. “Let’s go
down to the church,” he said. “We’ll talk about it.”
I told him I’d meet him there, but I didn’t think I’d go. What use was it? God, I was sure, had given up on
me. Walking to my car I passed a trash can. Inexplicably my grip loosened on the paper bag and into the
trash it went. I got in my car knowing I would go see Jim.
When I arrived at the church, I knocked hard, but there was no answer. That’s odd. Jim said he’d be
here. I called the church office from my car phone.
“Jim, this is Nancy. Can we talk now?”
“Of course,” he said.
Inside, Jim listened and with a few well-chosen words made me feel I could go on, even if my marriage was
over. “You saved my life,” I told him.
“I’m glad I heard the phone ring. I was downstairs cleaning,” he said.
“But, Jim, I saw you in the parking lot at the shopping center. You asked me to come here, “ I said.
Jim looked puzzled. “I’ve been here all afternoon,” he insisted.
I thought back to that moment in the parking lot. I had talked to someone who knew where I had to
go.
If it wasn’t Jim, who was it?
[End quoting]
107
—Nancy Hubbard, Batavia, Illinois
Isn’t it marvelous how God gets our attention to help us when we have given up on Him?