Near to God

A question was posed in one of the Workshops during our recent AUL&M-UK Celebration Day, to mark the Centenary year of the wonderful Unity Booklet, Daily Word: “When was the last time you felt close to God?”  
 
Without hesitation I heard myself say, "Today, on the way here.”

Obviously, an explanation was due so I tried to explain as follows:
“We had a long but pleasant drive from Chesterfield to Birmingham. However, as my friend, Rita, and I reached the City Centre things became a little, shall we say ‘challenging’; the Sat Nav that had guided us safely thus far suddenly became uncooperative and Rita and I found ourselves going round in ever decreasing circles.
 
“I’m sure we’ve passed that Mosque at least twice before” I heard myself say. Rita remained calm and collected, but agreed we had in fact been here before. “I think it’s time to ask for help,” I said, looking skyward. “Angels we need a little help here, “I pleaded from my heart.
 
No sooner had the words left my mouth when we noticed a stationary taxi immediately in front of us. Rita stopped her car by the curb directly in front of the taxi and approached the driver on foot.
 
I heard Rita explain to the driver where we needed to be but that we could not seem to find the turning for the road on which our venue was situated. The driver of the taxi thought for only a second or so and then replied, “It’s too difficult for me to explain the way you need to go.”  I couldn’t see my friend’s face, but I’m sure Rita must have looked disappointed at the driver’s words, because we were now running about twenty minutes late.
 
Then a glimmer of hope shone out before us. “Follow me,” the taxi driver said, smiling. Rita took her seat behind the steering wheel once more and we proceeded to follow this ‘Guiding Angel’ for a considerable distance, a £10 fare at least, for him. The taxi driver led us right to the car park of the building where the celebrations were taking place. We agreed it was only fair to offer that amount to him, as this was his livelihood.  After all, he could have earned much more than £10 in the time he spent leading us to our destination. That lovely smiling man, our Angel in disguise, would not hear of it - however hard we pressed him to take the money.
 
It was as we thanked him profusely and waved him off that I felt God was very close indeed. I was reminded of  a line from Helen Steiner-Rice’s Poem -  

"On life’s busy thoroughfares we meet with Angels unaware"
​
---- Yes, God was surely at the heart of our brief encounter with that wonderful man who may never know how much his selfless gift of kindness meant to two ‘Lost Souls’ that Saturday, 27th of July 2024 in Birmingham City ..
 
With love and blessings to our ‘Angel’ and all those wonderful souls who perform selfless acts of kindness in service to others every minute of every day. Thank You, thank you, thank you. May you be blessed, as you are a blessing…
 
Nuala Sikorski
Unity Chesterfield, Derbyshire


“When was the last time you felt close to God?”