Rescue by an Angel

 

Perhaps I was too young to understand what the teachers in the children class of First Baptist Church taught us in my early years. I assumed from their teachings of the bible that angels were gargantuan and celestial beings clothed in white apparel. They also had wings. They were invisible and sent by God to help people or to destroy His enemies. Even after I had attained adolescence, I still held on to my childhood understanding of angels.

My knowledge of angels changed after I encountered one.

The year was 2011 or so. I had the habit of leaving home early to drive in light traffic to work. I lived about 20km away, so wisdom required me to leave as early as 5:45 am to resume at 8:00 am. Lagos traffic!

I had the usual experience in the early hours of the morning until I approached the intersection, where I noticed that the traffic lights changed unpredictably from red to amber or green. The intervals between the change in the colours were irregular and confusing. I had a suspicion of something fishy, but I kept my cool. I waited for the green colour so that I could continue driving.

As soon as I had resumed driving, a traffic officer approached me from nowhere and hit the car. He asked me to stop driving because I had disobeyed the traffic instruction. He pointed at the traffic light. It had changed to a red colour. That was my offence - I drove when the traffic light asked me to stop - he implied. At this juncture, I was already obstructing vehicles coming perpendicularly to me. They kept hooting for me to leave their path. I was confused. How could the traffic light be so faulty to mislead me?

I remembered the rumour that some traffic officers were notorious for manipulating the traffic light to arrest innocent motorists. I had no proof that he was complicit in the traffic matter, so I had to appeal to him. Before I could explain that I was innocent, a policeman had joined him in harassing me. I felt cheated, but there was nobody to witness in my favour. It was still dark. More cars were now held in the traffic around me because the law enforcement officers would not allow me to leave the spot.

While I was arguing and negotiating simultaneously, a man approached us with aggression. He pointed at me as if he would slap me for causing the chaos that morning. He wore mufti and shouted, "I saw you! I saw you!!" I wanted to ask him about what he saw. I blamed myself for taking that route that morning. I could have avoided the embarrassment. What did he see that made him want to add to my misery?

It was as if the man heard the question I mused. He suddenly lowered his voice and said to me, "I saw as you approached the intersection. I watched the traffic lights change unusually. You did your best to obey the traffic light. You were confused but had to obey the light until these men stopped you."

I wanted to appreciate him for having some understanding of my plight. There were no words. My plans had been disturbed that morning by men who ought to uphold the law. The man in mufti introduced himself as a traffic journalist. "We have had reports that you extort motorists," he pointed accusingly at the traffic officer and policeman. "I will ensure I write a report against the two of you for your poor professional conduct this morning," he added.

Before he could finish his statement, the policeman and traffic officer had fled. At that moment, I felt like the thief on the right side of Jesus Christ on the cross who got a last-minute pardon. I was vindicated, just like that! The man patted me on the shoulder and left as swiftly as he had come.

If the "journalist" wasn't an angel, what was he?