In 1985 I was driving on assignment from Sacramento to San Louis Obispo, California, a distance of some 600 miles. It was the middle of summer and Interstate 5, south of Stockton, seemed to be a long, straight, monotonous corridor that vanished somewhere beyond the wavering mirages of water that permeated the distant southern horizon. The redundancy of the rolling golden hills to the west provided just enough entertainment to leave one wondering what lay in the valley beyond the next hill, and the next…
With the stereo playing and my foot tapping to the beat of the music, I scarcely noticed a white flash outside the passenger door as my car flew past the next hill. I glanced in my rear view mirror and, to my surprise, saw someone walking on the shoulder of the road. Now, this struck me as rather odd for this stretch of road was empty and desolate. I was alone on the road, and there were not any cars parked or abandoned on the side of the road. This person was out in the middle of nowhere!
I pulled my vehicle over to the side of the road, honked my horn and watched through the rear view mirror as the person began running up to the car. She was dressed all in white and had shoulder length blond hair. I smiled to myself as I thought this would be a nice break in the monotony of the drive. At least there would be someone to talk with.
I unlocked and opened the passenger door, and that is when "it" got into the car.
I say "it" because for the life of me I could not figure out whether this individual was male or female. I had been certain at first that it was a woman, because her clothes were all white, she wore sandals, her hair was long. But, his face, although soft was masculine.
"Hey" I said, "Do you need a ride?"
"Yes, thank you." His voice was masculine but gentle.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"South" he replied.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"The North" he answered.
There was something very strange about this character. I could tell this was going to be a long ride.
"Do you mind if I read?" he asked.
I hesitated for a moment, because even strange conversation would have been a nice change. But, I conceded, "No, I don't mind."
That was when he opened up a book and began reading… out loud, and continued reading out loud for the next 100 miles of our journey. Now, not that this wasn't't odd enough already, but the book he was reading was the Bible, and I was the furthest thing from a Christian back in those days. He read entire chapters out of the book of Isaiah, condemning Israel for her sins, listing them one by one, and I swear I sank lower and lower behind the steering wheel until I could hardly see over it.
Finally, to my relief, I reached my turn off.
"Well, this is where I go west." I said. "Which way are you going?"
"South" he answered, much to my delight.
So, I pulled over to the side of the road, said good bye, and let my strange passenger out. But, when I continued down the off ramp and looked in my rear view mirror he was gone! I quickly parked the car and got out and looked everywhere up and down the freeway, north, south, east and west. But, he was nowhere in sight. He had absolutely vanished!
Through the years as I have often reflected upon this incident, I have come to the conclusion that this was no ordinary person at all. Indeed, no "person" at all, but an angel of the Lord. He had come to deliver me a warning. In Hebrews 13:2 the Bible instructs us, "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!"
Have you ever seen an angel?
