Posted by: Connie Ruth Christiansen on 09/07/2021
Sitting for a moment in my car, in a parking space, I opened my purse to make sure that all of my required documents were in order. And that’s when I noticed my wallet, phone, credit cards, and cash, were missing.
I frantically emptied my purse (3 times) and tore my car apart looking. But none of it was there.
My very-important-appointment would have to wait! We headed back across town to the last place I remember for sure I was using my phone (which was attached within my wallet.)
Traffic was (of course) moving snail-slow, and I was stopped at literally every red light. My mind and emotions bouncing all over the place, trying to figure out where my lost things might possibly be, somewhere in the great, big, huge park/middle school area that Jackson (my pup) and I had walked all around - and the busy street I had been parked on.
All the drive over and as we pulled up to the park, I was trying to hold onto hope and praying … “Jesus help!” ... “Angels of God please surround my wallet and phone until we are reunited.” …"Help!"
More than an hour later, doing our best to retrace our steps, Jackson and I had looked under every bush, behind every tree, and dug in the dirt (Jackson); and kindhearted strangers had joined in our quest.
Wallet and phone were nowhere to be found.
Walking back to the car, disappointment swallowed up hope, frustration turned to anger about how could I have been so careless, and about how God apparently had not been paying attention, and how angels had not been listening. And paranoia that maybe that (apparently) very nice man in the park from this morning was probably a con-man, and now my ID was in the hands of a thief. And thinking about having to cancel all my cards and to change dozens of passwords, and re-find multiple phone contacts. And anxiety about all of the cash that was now lost forever. And sadness about my recent photos that had not been backed up yet, and they were surely gone forever.
I picked Jackson up and plopped him into his seat-belted-booster chair, and we drove just a few minutes back to home.
As I was forcing my very weary self to climb out of the car, I heard a peaceful, calm, reassuring Voice, “look in the mailbox.”
And so, I did. And there it was – all of it. My phone had apparently been run over by a car, the glass was completely shattered, but internally nothing was damaged – it somehow still worked. And not a single item was missing from the wallet. Money, cards, ID, all of it, a bit disheveled, but all there, just as if it had never been gone.
BUT WAIT!! …. That’s not the best part!
A few minutes later, someone pounded on my front door.
Jackson began to bark– not his low loud bark of “stranger alert!” but his bouncing up and down, higher pitched, hyperactive bark of “a friend is here, a friend is here, a friend, a friend, friend, hurry up mom!!! A FRIEND!!”
I opened the door and Jackson wiggled and waggled his happy self out from behind me, to greet his very best-friend-forever! his beloved mail-carrier.
“Did you find your phone?” he asked.
“That was you!?” I was so surprised!
“It was really weird,” he continued. “I was delivering mail down by the park and the middle school when suddenly I saw all of this cash spread out across the ground, and credit cards, and a phone. And a bunch of people were walking around it and past it, and through it, like they didn’t even see it. Like I was the only one who noticed it……. this neighborhood NOone walks away from money and cards! ...It was just SO weird…
So, I gathered it all up. I found your ODL and recognized your photo, and brought it all back here. When you didn’t answer my knock, I plopped it into your mailbox…I came back again just now, after work, to make sure you found it.”
Then I told him my side of the story.
We were both so amazed to realize how all the pieces of this mystery puzzle had come together to create a very happy ending,
Angels-unseen had obviously been standing by and somehow directing traffic, waiting patiently until just the right earthly angel came along to finish the task.
How cool is that?
Me, back inside again, smiling, no worries … And then ... sheepishly, “oops, sorry God, sorry angels, for the human overload and faith meltdown. I guess you WERE paying attention after all……thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!
Jackson and I did a little happy dance.
And for my earth-angel – Come tomorrow morning, when he stops by to deliver my mail, he will find a thank you note, attached to a box filled with yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies.
~Connie
Connie Ruth Christiansen
www.connieruthchristiansen.com
