A STICK IN TIME

 A Stick in Time (an excerpt)

As Nundah guided the vehicle down the gravel road, trying to choose the least bumpy parts of the track, he noticed that the brakes felt funny, spongy. He began to pump them. No response! The 4x4 was getting faster. Bram was unsure of what was happening, but he sensed the danger.

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Nundah began to pray and to quote Scripture, loudly, ‘Lord, help Bram and me. “For he shall give his angels charge of thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”’

Faster and faster they went as trees and great boulders on either side of the road flashed by. Nundah frantically tried to stay on track and avoid crashing down the treacherous slopes and ravines. There was a sharpish bend coming up just ahead…

              Even though they do not yet exist, but if you had special glasses through which you could look and see us, you would witness rather formless blobs of white to bluish light, something like stars in a dark but hazy night sky, racing to the front and both sides of the vehicle.

But here is the picture in the situation we are dealing with: a) Nundah has prayed. b) The Master has given us (angels) instructions. c) We angels execute His instructions.

The result?

The wheels of the vehicle turned faster and faster, as it sped down the steep incline, spraying gravel behind it as it went. Cu was barking and Nundah and Bram were praying. Saplings at the side of the road were whacking the old Nissan as it ran the gauntlet of fear. The gears were grinding and the handbrake was smoking. Nundah’s attempts at slowing the vehicle proved futile. He was sure that the vehicle had become airborne a few times, but somehow he managed to keep it on the track. The steep precipice at the sharp bend was rushing to meet them.

The men’s prayers had become less eloquent. Like arrows from a bow, they shot the words, ‘Help! Lord, help!’ heavenward. The saplings were becoming thicker. The vehicle began to hit some of the thicker ones. They were not thick enough to stop the vehicle dead in its tracks. However, the wagon was solidly build and had a ‘roo-bar’ on the front, therefore, bending under the vehicle and running the whole length under it, the young trees seemed to serve to slow its momentum sufficiently. This enabled Nundah to manage to guide the free-wheeling 4x4 back onto the track just in time to round the sharp bend on two wheels. It then began to grind to a halt on the slight incline in the road just beyond the sharp bend.

‘That was a close one! Just as well I had the presence of mind to change down into the lowest gear and apply the handbrake! I was amazed that it all actually worked as well as it did! Praise God!’

Bram had no idea what Nundah was talking about, only that he, like Nundah, was happy that the vehicle had stopped before there had been a serious bone-shattering collision.

‘Yes,’ he concurred ‘Praise God indeed!’

Do you see now why we are referred to as ‘guardian’ angels? If we had not done what we did Bram and Nundah would have, well, I do not know what would have happened exactly, but, like you, I do know that it most probably would not have been good for either of them!

Nundah and Bram were out of the vehicle. They had come a fair distance down the hill. Like constantly shaking maracas, the cicadas were noisy in the gum trees as the heat of the sun increased and the day got established. Nundah could see an inky liquid dripping from a ruptured pipe along the chassis somewhere. They were in range. Nundah’s phone rang. It was Niamh. She had been trying to ring before.

‘Yes boss? No boss, I didn’t find anything, but…’

‘Nundah, would you please stop calling me “boss”! Niamh had been trying to get Nundah to call her by her first name for years, but Nundah had too much respect for her to call her that.

‘Boss, it’s the wagon. We nearly had an accident. The brakes…’

‘Nundah, are you okay? What happened? Are you injured? What do you mean “we”? Who’s with you?’

‘Well boss, I do have someone with me, and he looks just like Thomas! In fact he’s nearly dressed the same as Thomas was, them buckles and all! I thought he was Thomas when I met him at Dark Pool.’

‘Don’t try to drive. I’ll pick you up myself and we’ll get the boys to take care of the Nissan later.’ At that Niamh hung up.

‘Bram, do you mind if I give thanks to the Lord for delivering us? He heard and answered our prayers to save us. I’m sure it would have taken a legion of angels to slow down and stop our vehicle the rate we were travelling!’

If I did not know better, I would have to conclude that Nundah actually saw us keeping the vehicle from running off the road!

Nundah prayed, even quoting a portion of a Psalm, ‘“Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song I will praise him.”’

Bram also prayed, and following the precedent begun by Nundah, quoted from another Psalm, ‘Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in his holy name.” Amen.’

‘I respect a man who knows his Scriptures!’ said Nundah.

‘And I respect a man even more who lives by them, as I have seen you do!’ answered Bram.

‘Who are you?’ asked Nundah, ‘And who is Thomas?’

‘We are twins from Dublin. That must sound very strange to you. But this place is very strange to me! Where am I now and what is the year? From what I have witnessed already, I know it must be sometime in the future.’ Bram was obviously referring to the vehicle and the phone.

‘It is 2011 and we are near the town of Springsure in the Australian outback.’

‘Four hundred years in the future! And I have never even heard of, what did you call it?’

‘Australia, mate! The land Down Under. Down under from where you say you come from, that is, if it’s Dublin, Ireland that you’re talking about?’

‘Yes, that is the Dublin of which I speak, but it is the Dublin of four hundred years ago. Dublin 1611!’