A Visit from Gabriel

Selling books, door to door, was what I did each summer as a college student. Selling books for 80 hours a week, to say the least, is very hard work. Besides paying my way through college, this adventure provided experiences that were unique and quite different from what most of my college buddies were experiencing.

One summer, I was selling books in Kentucky, not too far from Cincinnati. I knocked on a door and a short, lean man came to the door. He invited me in, so I walked into his living room. I could tell from the furniture and pictures on the walls that this was his parent's home. His parents were deceased, so he was the only one in the home. There was something about this man that gave me a hint that he was probably not a very good prospect. From something he said I perceived that he was one slice short of a loaf.

Besides children's and Bible reference books, I sold Family Bibles. I stretched out my arms like I was measuring a giant fish and said, "Have you ever gotten around to getting you one of those BIG Family Bibles?" He said that he had one. He immediately went to another room to retrieve it so he could show it to me. He came back with a small New Testament that fit in the palm of his hand. However, he was carrying it as if it was a huge Bible. He began flipping through the tiny Bible and showed me some pictures of Jesus that were in the middle. I said, "Great, it looks like you already have a Family Bible."

I was about to leave when the man said,
"You should have been here earlier. Gabriel just left. Gabriel and I went and played golf. He is a good golfer. He shot a three under par. Gabriel told me when my mother was going to die. He told me when my father was going to die. Gabriel told me when I am going to die. If you like, I can have Gabriel come and tell you when you are going to die."

"That's okay," I said, and began heading for the door. As you probably guessed, the Gabriel he was talking about was the Angel! I thanked him for his time and immediately started making my way to the door. There was something about having an angel appear to tell me when I was going to die was not something I wanted to experience. I told Larry, my sales manager, about this experience and he told me that I should have asked him not about who is going to die, but "who is going to buy."

This was but one of hundreds of experiences I had during the six summers I sold books. Have you ever had an experience like this?