Do you believe in miracles? Charlie Gobel recalls the evening he was miraculously saved from death, and how it changed his life forever
In 1987, I was a 35-year-old businessman employed by a well-known investment firm in New York City.
I generally worked long hours and often, after a very long day - which nearly always extended into the early evening - I would take a short break by walking across the street to a newspaper store. I love chocolate, and a quick sugar hit, as well as a stretch of my legs, would give me a much-needed energy boost for my after-hours work.
God saved my life by sending me an angel
One winters evening at 5pm, the peak of rush-hour traffic, I was doing what I had done many times before. Standing on the corner of street, I was waiting for the traffic light to turn green so I could step off the curb and cross the road to grab a chocolate bar.
As the traffic lights started to change and the cars at the busy intersection began to slow down, I put my right foot in front of me to cross. But weirdly, it would not budge.
Stuck at the curb
At first, I thought I was imagining it. My foot felt like it was stuck in something or actually being weighed down. I even got annoyed for a second, thinking that my foot had fallen asleep. Maybe I had hurt it somehow? No matter what I tried, it would not cooperate as it had done a million times before.
As I felt my frustration rise, suddenly, a pickup truck that was stuck behind another car slowing down for the changing lights decided it just had to get through before the lights turned red. In a millisecond, it swerved from the left lane into the right lane - the lane I should have been walking in - and accelerated fast.
My foot felt like it was stuck in something or actually being weighed down
As I stood, still stuck and staring down at my foot, the truck zoomed past me with a tremendous force, just a quarter of an inch away from my nose. It left me in the dust, with my mouth wide open - yet now able to move my foot as easily and nimbly as if to dance the Tango!
As I watched the rampaging truck run the light, which had already been red for several seconds, and then race away down the busy street, I instantly realised what had taken place.
Saved by grace
It was not luck that had come to my rescue. It wasn’t my leg cramping up, just at the right time, that spared my loved ones from a tragedy that some may never have fully recovered from. And it certainly wasn’t a special agility on my part that enabled me to escape the path of that wayward truck - and save its driver from a life that would have been ruined by one, very reckless act.
It was something much bigger and mightier than any of that, something only God could provide in such a dire moment.
God saved my life by sending me an angel, who kept my foot so forcefully stuck on the curb that evening that I could have been promised 50 free chocolate bars on the other side of the street, and I still would not have had the strength to break loose!
I’ve shared my story with many people over the years, and often received such sceptical looks, one would have thought I just told a story about my recent abduction and escape from aliens! But fortunately, I’ve also received many wide smiles, followed by an exuberant exclamation of: “Praise God!”, from those who have heard my glorious true tale as well.
Prior to that momentous evening, I had been a Christian for several years but generally spent much more time reading the Wall Street Journal and perusing investment reports than studying the Bible and worshipping God.
I vowed to reverse those habits shortly after my angel rescue, and I was gradually able to do so. As a result, my faith and devotion to God steadily grew throughout the years, as did my appreciation for the miraculous blessing he bestowed upon me that evening in New York City, which I still emphatically thank him for each and every day.
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