Angel Rescue: My Near Death Experience

Last week, during a blizzard, we almost died.

My husband was driving his blue Chevy Colorado with winter wheels through a snowstorm to get firewood on our way to our cabin. Our two cats were in the back. Everything around us was whitewashed. We were in an unfamiliar industrial area, trying to follow signs to get out safely after loading a barrel of firewood into the truck.

It looked like we simply had to drive downhill to reach some construction vehicles ahead.

Then my husband stopped.

He says I yelled at him to stop in a panic, but I do not remember that moment. What I remember is looking out my passenger side window and realizing the front of our truck was over the edge of a cliff at least forty feet high. The front tires were sitting right at the edge.

One more roll forward and our lives would have ended there.

That moment has not left me. I cannot unfeel it.

Moments like that do not leave you neutral. They demand an explanation, and they force you to decide what you actually believe about who holds your life.

If your life almost ended today, what would suddenly feel unimportant. What would matter most.

When Death Feels Close, the Questions Get Loud

When you realize how quickly life can end, everything else fades. Schedules, plans, productivity. None of it matters in that moment.

You start asking the questions that matter.

Why are we here.

What is the purpose of life.

What really matters if everything could end tomorrow.

Those questions only make sense if we begin with who God is.

God is the Creator of heaven and earth. He is not distant. He is not passive. He has power over this world and over our lives in it. Scripture tells us that He commands angels and sends them to guard, protect, and intervene.

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

Psalm 91:11

God is alive. He is real. He is active in our lives. What happened to us was not coincidence.

Purpose Is Not Something We Choose for Ourselves

If God created us, then purpose is not something we define on our own. Meaning is not found in survival, success, or simply getting through another hard season. Purpose comes from the One who formed us.

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Psalm 139:13

How much of your life right now is about surviving rather than truly living.

I did not come to this understanding quickly. I came to it the long way, through years of searching.

My Search for Meaning

In my twenties and into my thirties, I struggled deeply with the purpose and meaning of my life. I carried a broken past. I had no real support system. I was a young, single mother working three jobs just to survive and trying to get ahead.

Those years were not only exhausting. They were lonely. I questioned my value. I questioned whether my life mattered beyond survival.

It was in those days that I found Jesus. Or more truthfully, He found me.

It was just Him and me, with the Bible between us. In that quiet, personal place, He began to show me who I was. He showed me that I had purpose in Him, even when my life felt shattered.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart.”

Jeremiah 1:5

Obedience, Desire, and Calling

Over time, I learned something that changed how I understand calling.

God does not call us into something disconnected from who we are. As we seek Him, He shapes our desires. He places them in our hearts. Those desires become part of how His purpose unfolds in our lives.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4

Every time I tried to pursue my own plans without seeking God, something felt off. Not because God was punishing me, but because I was stepping outside what He was shaping within me.

Calling is not forced. It grows through relationship. Purpose develops as we seek Him.

What desires has God placed in your heart that you may have dismissed or ignored.

What We Must Believe About Jesus

To understand moments of protection, we must understand who Jesus truly is.

Jesus is not simply a good teacher or a historical figure. He is God in the flesh. He walked this earth, gave His life, rose again, and ascended to the right hand of the Father. His Spirit now lives within believers, carrying the authority and power of God.

What we believe about Jesus determines whether moments like the one we experienced are dismissed as chance or recognized as divine intervention.

Prayer, Obedience, and Protection

That morning, something prompted me to pause. I spent extra time with the Lord. Extra prayer. Extra petition for safety for my family. I do not know if it was simply the severity of the storm or the Spirit urging me, but I was obedient.

Later that day, standing inches from the edge of that cliff, I knew God had answered.

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.”

Psalm 34:7

This was not luck. It would have been an awful tragedy. God sent His angels, and we were preserved.

What That Moment Changed

That image of the cliff has stayed with me. It reshaped my priorities. It clarified what truly matters.

In that moment, I did not think about accomplishments or plans. I thought about the lives God had entrusted to me. I thought about Him.

Life is not about survival alone. It is about obedience, faith, love, and purpose.

Preserved for a Reason

I cannot stop praising God in my heart, my voice, and my body. He protected us that day. He preserved our lives.

But preservation is never random.

If God intervened, then there is purpose. If He preserved your life too, there is purpose there as well.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:10

If your life did not end at the edge of your own cliff, whatever that looks like for you, why do you think you are still here?

What is God inviting you into now?

With hope & love,

Melissa Mills, survivor leader