Touched By God

It was a moonless Saturday night in Tagaytay, after  drinking with my friends at PapaDoms, I was on my way to the parking area when I was approached by a young woman giving gospel leaflets. It was late, around 11PM, so I was startled and a bit annoyed by her  presence.

"What is it?" I said.

"Sir,  you dropped your wallet." She said.

Instead of saying thank you, I opened my wallet and checked if everything was there. I looked at her as if she stole something, but everything was there.

"Oh.. everything is there sir, I didn't open it." She said.

"Thank you." I said. She then gave me one of those leaflets, I looked at it and it states that she was looking for donations for her younger sister who had ovarian cancer and was one chemotherapy away from being cancer free and at the foot of the leaflet it says : "God loves a cheerful giver."

I thought it was another one of those scams, and it made me angry.

"So you gave me my wallet back, so you can ask for more money, nice. Good scamming strategy." I said.

"No sir, I'm not a scammer. Actually I have all the medical bills here in my bag. I can show them to your sir." she said. Frantically looking at her small black purse.

"If there was a God why don't ask for money to come down from heaven? Here 100 pesos, for your scamming efforts." I said.

She paused and looked at what's in my hand.

"Take it. So I can leave." I said. 

The girl reluctantly took the money with a face of shame.

"Thank you sir."  The girl's eyes started to water, soon tears ran through her cheeks, obviously deeply hurt by my remarks, she took out a transparent plastic bag from her black purse, full of coins with 20, 50 peso bills, some 100 peso bills. She put the 100 peso bill I gave her inside, as she wiped the tears of humiliations in her eyes.

When I hopped on my motorcycle I turned around and said "Sorry, it was a dumb thing to say. "

She nodded and said "Don't you believe in God sir?" 

"No, not really. Money is god. I'm sorry for calling you a scammer, it's stupid. Here take this 1000 pesos, it will take you a little bit further. I hope you sister gets well soon" I said. 

She nodded again and gave a faint smile. "God bless your kind heart sir, God shall watch over you, I know." she said.

I started my motorcycle and drove back to Manila, it was a foggy night in Tagayay, the breeze was cold and the cool air seeped inside my leather jacket, it was dangerously comforting as I had already too many beers to drink that night. 

When suddenly, someone touched my hand. It was a strong tap on my left hand. It was only then that realized I had dozed off, I was asleep and I was going 100km per hour.

I stopped my bike and the man who tapped my hand parked about 50 paces away from me.  The road was dark, but the headlights of our motorcycle illuminated the night road.

"Hey man, I saw you were asleep and your bike was gearing right toward the tree line!" he said.

I was seconds away from my death. If this man hadn't risked his life to save mine, I would have been dead. 

"Really? I did doze off, thank you!" I said.

"Do you know someone I can call for you?" he said

"No, I'll be fine. I'll just stand here for a while, I'll just watch the Manila lights 'till I get sober. Thank you so much, you saved my life." I said.

"Don't thank me brother, thank God, he sent me to help you." he said. 

As the man drove away and I watched the city lights of Manila, I realized that I had not gotten his name but it did not matter, for he  was sent by to God steer me onto safety. As the man was sent for me, as I am to that girl in that parking lot. It was the moment that changed my life, the moment I was touched by God.