Description
Thanks Lord, For Sending Me An Angel
It was a Friday night in June 1953 when 16-year-old Lyle Green took the family car and drove to a remote railroad depot near Eve, Missouri to pick up his dad, Porter, who worked as a telegraph operator for the Kansas City Southern Railroad. Dad had spent all week at the depot and now the plan was to go home together the next morning.
About 9:00 pm that same night a call came in over the telegraph that the railroad had lost four boxcars and wondered if they were in a siding about two miles south of the Eve depot, and would Porter go investigate. Dad asked, “Does it have to be tonight, can’t it be tomorrow where I can see? It’s pitch dark here with no moon and it would be hard for me to see them.”
The railroad insisted that it had to be tonight because a train was coming that could pick them up if they were there. So, Dad gave Lyle a flashlight and down the tracks they went. It just so happened that Lyle was carrying an old army canteen that he had found at the dump the year before.
They reached the siding. Lyle ran ahead and checked the ID number on the first car. The number matched. It was one of the lost cars. He checked the second and again—a match. He reached the third car and shined his light inside. Lyle said:
“I [got] the scare of my life. I saw two shiny big eyes staring at me, and I hollered, WOW! Then I heard this voice hollered back at me and said, ‘Wait, don’t leave me, please come and help me please sir.’”
“Dad!” Lyle shouted, “There’s a man in the box car.”
Dad came running and asked the man who he was and what he was doing there. The man said:
“My name is Jake, and I hopped this car a little over a day and a half ago. And I’m so thirsty and hungry, and as you can see, I have only one leg, so I couldn’t walk very far. I was hoping another train would come by and pick me up, but they never did.”
Lyle and Dad helped the old man out of the car. Lyle shared his canteen. They then helped him hobble to the depot where Dad gave Jake his sandwich. Dad said:
“Son, take Jake down the track about six box cars and carry this stool with you and I will flag down the north train… that will be coming by about midnight. When he sees the flare, he will stop and come in to see what is wrong…And I then will let him know about the four lost box cars I found and where they are at. You two look for an empty box car as the train goes by and when the train stops, use the stool to help Jake get into the car.”
Dad gave Jake ten dollars and Lyle gave him his canteen. At this kindness, Jake said, “Mr. Green, after a day gone by, when I was back in that old dark box car, I prayed and prayed asking God to please help me and don’t let me die. It was about 30 minutes later I saw your son and when I saw his white t-shirt, he looked just like an angel. I said to myself, thanks Lord, for sending me an angel.”
Lyle said, “Jake hugged me and hugged Dad. And said, “How could I ever thank you both for saving my life?”
Around midnight the northbound train stopped, picked up the lost cars and resumed its journey. As it passed slowly, the depot lights illuminated a crippled old man inside one of the cars. He waved, tears streaming down his face.
It is a good thing to pray and receive answers, but it is a higher matter entirely to live in such a way that you are the answer to another’s prayer—you are their angel!
Story contributed by Lyle Green
