What seems like forever ago, a week or so after my son’s sixteenth birthday, I got in my car after running errands to notice this little figure standing on my dash. It was a plastic green army guy. You know the ones or maybe you don’t but they were super popular probably forty or fifty years ago and that day I saw him staring at me from his position on the dash of my car.
I knew that I had not put him there and I was pretty sure who had so I snapped a picture and texted it to my son. “What is this?” I asked in the text with a picture of the army guy standing on my dash. In spite of the fact that he was in class and not supposed to have his phone, an immediate response came back with “that’s army guy.” I laughed and texted him back. “I know it’s an army guy. My question, I guess, is where did it come from and how did it get into my car?” Again I got a very rapid response from number one Son, “I got him at Space Aliens last week for my birthday and he is there to protect you and keep you safe.” My mama heart absolutely swelled of course, throughout the years I have kept that army guy in my car as a constant protection and safety, and reminder of the love that lives between myself and my only child.
A couple of months ago in a rapid clean out of the garbage from my car at a gas station, I shortly thereafter realized that army guy was indeed missing. I was absolutely devastated. I’m not gonna lie. I literally cried on and off for weeks afterwards, as I prayed and asked spirit, “I know that you can bring him back, please give me my army guy back.” I searched my car numerous times, Clarence searched my car numerous times and to absolutely no avail. It seemed that army guy had literally been taken out with the trash. I felt absolutely horrible. How could I have been so careless as to pick him up and discard him along with garbage, not realizing what I was doing when I had kept him safely for nine years?
Army guy is actually incredibly well traveled; this thing has literally been through six different countries, including a long trip to Europe and probably fifteen different states in road trips and adventures throughout these past nine years I do randomly text Christian pictures of army guy on various adventures; the subway train in Vienna, And ocean view in the Pacific Northwest, the beach in South Carolina. This guy travels on planes and automobiles like any other enlisted military personnel. Over the last two months I have still continued to ask spirit, knowing that the universe has miraculous abilities to create and provide, if they would bring army guy back to me. I was literally to the point after a couple months of doing this of giving up, and yet I still know without question that miracles can happen.
Yesterday was a day. I’ll just say that. Getting in my car after leaving my office, about to head on a two hour drive up to the lake, and the check engine light comes on in my vehicle. Crap! I pull over, take out my owners manual and do my due diligence to land on a page that says if this comes on, you must see your service dealership. Not what I wanna hear. I quickly phone a girlfriend who lives close by and beg a spot in her guest room so that I can spend the night and hopefully get my car in the next morning. I grab dinner at a fast food restaurant, I’m not proud of this, but sometimes I just have to eat sitting in a parking lot. I am putting the trash together, feeling somewhat dismayed by this recent turn of events and feeling a little bit down on my luck. I crumple up the trash, and toss it into the bag. One piece of wrapper misses and as I bend over to pick it up off of the passenger floor, guess what I see nestled sweetly next to the passenger seat? You got it, a miracle reappearance of army guy. Remember as I stated earlier, not just myself, but also my husband, have run through this car with a fine tooth comb multiple times looking for said military man, to absolutely no avail. As a request from the universe was fulfilled before my eyes, he was sitting there, calm as a cucumber just chillaxing on the floor by my passenger seat.
I will tell you I myself had looked there at least a dozen times in sincere hopes that he would just magically materialize. In this moment there he was. My heart absolutely leapt with joy, and I could not hold back the tears as they just rushed out of my eyes. I was as happy to see him as if my son himself had materialized next to me in physical form. Replacing army guy in his respective position, nestled in the little storage compartment in front of my cupholder where he watches over me with diligence and protection, I felt complete once again. I know this is a weird story, I know it’s silly that I have such an emotional attachment to this tiny little plastic figure that probably cost my son $10 at Space Aliens but is worth three cents, but I do. For me it is the constant reminder of the connection between myself and my son as he is far far away and I took it to heart the moment he said, “he is there to protect you and keep you safe.”
This morning I took my car into the dealership to receive a text a short while later saying “Hey, your gas cap was on crooked and it caused a vapor leak.” No, they were not kidding. That is actually what triggered the check engine light. $25 later and worse for wear, I am on my journey home finally, content in the peaceful security of my vehicle and the ever watchful protective eye of army guy, knowing that he has his eye and his hand on all things. Universe provides! We are in a miraculous space in our humanity as we are held in the sacredness of spirit, never forget that. The most random happenings have a purpose in the divine. Teach yourself to look for it and to trust it.
Forever the journey, Anne