Wonderful and unforeseen are the works of the Lord with us! In my youth, like many others, I read the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and told myself: "How beautiful it used to be…". And with that feeling, I closed it and put it back on its shelf. That was pretty much it. But life itself shamed me (again) and showed me that there is no "once upon a time" in Orthodoxy. There is "now and ever and unto ages of ages!".
Well, during one of our pilgrimages to the saints, we experienced something that, truly, you only encounter in movies. We were on the highway from Thessaloniki to Athens. We were listening to the radio and discussing the visits we were about to make. It was extremely hot, and we were driving slowly, with the windows down, sniffing the fragrance coming from the desert flower and admiring the immense oleanders along the roadside. I can't help but mention that in Greece, absolutely no one has ever honked at us! Everything unfolds at two speeds: slowly and very slowly.Siga-siga... as they say.
And as we were enveloped in this relaxed atmosphere, we suddenly saw a car approaching in the left lane, moving at a very high speed. We both fell silent, and in a fraction of a second, literally a fraction of a second, we saw it in the air! It was spinning in the air, simply rolling like in action movies where professionals perform dangerous stunts. We froze! All I managed to hear was: "Mother of God!!! Mother of God!! Noooooo!!!" It was my husband shouting, pleading, lamenting for those in the car. Everything lasted exactly a fraction of a second, and my husband's heart surged, piercing the sky like lightning!
Lord, great is the mercy of the Lord! Great is the love of the Mother of God! I will never tire of proclaiming it! This is the Mother of our Lord!
We both watched, stunned, as the car, after three aerial rolls, landed back with a slight thud on its four wheels, as if nothing had happened! No damage, nothing! We were, of course, stopped on the emergency lane, waiting to see if help was needed. We watched as the car doors opened and first a lady got out from the back, who literally sat down on the asphalt. Then a little girl with pigtails, somewhere around 4-5 years old... She wasn't crying, she was just checking her pigtails and saying something to her mother with a wide smile on her lips. Did she perhaps think the driver had performed a wonderful stunt to amaze her? Anyway, her face was calm, even slightly cheerful. A mix of feelings.
We made sure everything was alright (the car hadn't suffered absolutely anything!) and left.
Now, I can't help but wonder: wasn't my husband's thought, tremor, and cry "at the right time and place"? Didn't good God want to teach us through this that every sigh and every tear is truly a prayer, as Father Arsenie Papacioc always said? Or perhaps it was because someone in the car was praying with a prayer rope, whispering "Lord Jesus..."? I don't know! What I do know and am convinced of is that if we had more love, patience, and consideration for one another in traffic, perhaps we wouldn't see so many crosses on the roadside... If, when we are stuck, instead of getting annoyed and swearing, we made the sign of the cross over other road users (as our spiritual Father taught us), perhaps we would live the saying "Every sigh can be a prayer".
I don't know if they needed us, or if we needed them to understand that we must work on the matters of the heart. What I certainly know now, however, is that true love, which dwells forever in the heart, penetrates the heavens.
Jenica Gavrilă
Photo by Toni Ferreira / pexels.com