The Day I Met God
I rush into the station, glancing up I see the time, 8:01, my train leaves at 8:04. Only four minutes to spare. I fly up the stairs, my feet barely touching the floor. Over the bridge, I see my train approaching. Down the other side, I dart past mums and dads trailing tired kids, their feet dragging. Then I see him. An old man, he stands alone at the bottom of the stairs. I catch his eyes and breath leaves me. Noise fades, a split second of infinite silence, and for that moment I know answers to questions I didn’t even know existed. Emotion rises in me, and I want to cry. He knows this but smiles. He is incredibly old but stunningly beautiful. I can’t look away and don’t want to. I go to him and he stretches out both arms, his hands glow with ethereal light. He places them on me. I feel warmth and infinite kindness pour into me. I blink back tears. He speaks, a voice clear and pure, a clarity that denies his years, “Keep my love with you.”
Instantly he finishes speaking, the noise of the station returns and the moment and all it held is passed. I look into his face and see an ordinary old man, slightly confused, wearing a shabby old coat. A woman greets him, “Hello dad, come on, let’s get home, sorry I’m late.” He smiles at me and I see in his smile a flash of the man who had spoken, then he leaves with her.
My legs can’t take my weight, adrenalin courses through me and I have to sit. My head in my hands, I watch as my train leaves without me, and I don’t care. Thirty minutes later, I catch the next connection. My mind still focuses on this unearthly encounter; I sit silently.
A few minutes into the journey, we slow to a stop. An announcement bellows to us an apology for the delay due to a problem further along the line. I feel a sudden chill and an insight; I somehow know in that moment that many lives have been lost, the earlier train, the one I would have been on, has derailed. I silently thank whoever the man was for my survival, his gift to me.