Bohemia Village Voice

Who Was It?

Cycling is among my favorite activities. No wonder I was often seen on the saddle of this vehicle in various parts of the Czech Republic.
From time to time we, as a group of young people, sent our bikes ahead to a chosen train station, we followed later and rode about 40km per day and after a week we sent our bicycles back home. Every day, we visited various landmarks, natural attractions and facilities for various sports activities. The following lines describe a true story, which happened whilst exploring the foothills of the Sumava area on the southern border of the Czech Republic with Germany.
It’s a moist cool summer morning. I’m alone. There is no living soul, only birdsong accompanies my thoughts, I am going quite quickly on my side of the local roads. Just as I leave the forest, suddenly I hear a clear, rich male voice that come from someone very close behind me.
‘Pull over onto the gravel’. I turn round to find out who is really behind me. But no-one is behind me. Still I’m alone. ‘I must have been imagining things,’ I am thinking. ‘It’s stupid. So far, I have met no car, so I have no reason to change my driving style’.
I continue to go on my bicycle at full road speed without any response to this voice. Let me clarify that. Roads are either salted or gritted with gravel in the winter to ensure these roads remain passable. During the rest of the year this gravel is pushed by cars to both edges of the road. ‘Pull over onto the gravel,’ means ‘Go to the edge of the road’.
However, after a while the desperate voice comes from behind again, ‘Pull over onto the gravel’. I am still unable to see where the voice is coming from, which shocked me very much. I obey immediately. I have never heard such a desperate scream either before or since.
Immediately after I pull over onto the gravel, a car appears at high speed coming towards me, cutting the corner and heading toward me. It is a red Skoda Favorit combi (Czech car). The car drives past me so closely that I feel wind resistance caused by this car.
When I realize what I have just witnessed, my knees begin to shake. I have to jump off the bike for some time and walk beside it. Who warned me? In any case it was not some inner voice! That ‘someone’ acted of his own will, or performed one command? Who took care of the absolute precise timing of this warning? Between the repeated warning of that voice and the passing of the car had been only a few seconds!
Someone far more powerful than me had known that I will not obey him on the first time. It was quite clear that this ‘person’, far higher and smarter than I am, cared extremely about me. But there still remained the question ‘Who was talking to me?’
The answer I found in the letter which our Heavenly Father left for us in order to live everlasting life without any evil. Finally the answer:
‘The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear (understand: respect) him, and delivers them.’ (The Bible, Psalm 34.7)
When I realized that angels usually don’t act alone, but have the commands of God himself, so I felt a great awe and immense gratitude. This consciousness that ‘God knows about me’ is a huge boost for everyone, even in the toughest situations.