Angels watching over me

The first time I watched singer Amy Grant sang the song “Angels Watching Over Me;” she got me hooked. What a beautiful song, and could it be that we do have angels God has assigned to watch over us?

My business partner Danny Lim of the very famous United Neon Inc. is a very soft-spoken, serious and brilliant business person. One day he sent me this email I will present here verbatim, draw a quick conclusion and add a few lines of commentary on it. His letter says:

“Wow, Great!! I exclaimed as I opened the gift envelope given to me by our site owner, the Gatchalians. They gave us a voucher for an overnight stay at the Manila Pavilion Hotel, a hotel that they owned.

“Perfect for a boy’s night out,” I told Fanny, my wife.

“Hey John, do you want to spend a night at the hotel, watching movies and just relaxing? I asked my son.”

“Yes, Papa,” John said.

So on Thursday night, John (12-year-old) and I set out to go to Manila Pavilion Hotel, which was just around 20 minutes away from the house.

“John, you know what, here’s an added bonus for us tonight. Mom is not with us, so we can buy all the chips that we want and eat chips and drink Minute Maid while watching movies round the clock.” I told him.

“Yes, yes, good idea, Papa!” John happily said.

So we stopped at the Mercury Store along Roxas Boulevard’s service road near United Nation’s Avenue. John and I each bought a bag filled with snacks we liked and went back to our car.

Exiting the Mercury Store, our car was parked on the other side of a two-way street. Both of us were carrying a bag, and John went ahead of me walking towards the car. As I looked towards the car, I suddenly noticed John was watching out for cars but looking in the wrong direction. Since it was a two-way street, he was looking for vehicles coming from the left side of the road, which was correct coming out from Mercury. But when we crossed to the other side of the street, John continued to look at the cars coming from the left when he should have been looking out for vehicles coming in from the right.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of light coming from the right side of the street and realized that it was the headlight of a motorcycle that was hurtling at full speed towards John, who was walking directly into its path. The motorcycle was moving so fast that I knew it couldn’t stop in time, and, as it was nighttime, the rider didn’t know that John did not see it. 

I was fifteen feet away from John, and all of this happened in a split second. As I saw the motorcycle fast closing in on John, with him still looking at the left side of the road, I attempted to shout a warning. I wanted to run towards John to pull him away, but in that split second, I knew I was too late to do either. So instead, I closed my eyes, shuddering, waiting for the sound of the bike hitting John.

But at the last moment I had to open my eyes, to immediately prepare for what would happen, and then, MIRACULOUSLY, I saw the bike just grazed John. I couldn’t believe what happened! I let out a sigh of great relief, and then, in anger, I ranted and raved at John for the next ten minutes.

I pulled John into the car, asked him why he was only looking in one direction, lectured him on how to cross a street, went out with him on the road to demonstrate to him what he should do, and went back again into the car ranting about what had happened.

Then, in the midst of one of my rants, John suddenly said, “Papa, it’s a good thing you pulled me back.”

I immediately froze when John said this, and said, “No, I didn’t pull you back. I was too far away from you. I was immobilized, fifteen feet away from you. And I was sure that the bike was going to hit you”.

John then asked, “Then who held me back?”

I said, “John, there was no one beside you. I was the one nearest to you.”

Then it dawned on me that it must have been God’s intervention who saved John. I asked, “John, what happened?”

He narrated, “I saw the motorcycle coming up on me at the last moment, and I panicked. I could either have gone backward, which would have been the right move, or go forward, which would have been even worse. But because I panicked, I decided to go forward. Just before I went forward, something held the back of my shirt collar, stopping me. And the bike just whizzed by me. I thought it was you.”

Sitting there, taking in what John had just said. I praised God that He must have sent an angel to protect him from a horrible accident. Praise God for His protection of John!!!”

“Angels Watching Over Me.” I love this song. The coming season of the year marks the prominence of ghosts, spirits and vampires… hmmm… maybe it’s just me but I would rather stick to God and angel stories like this any time all the time. Thanks Danny!

(Connect with Francis Kong in www.facebook.com/franciskong2 or listen to “Business Matters” Monday to Friday 8:00a.m. and 6:30 p.m. over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)