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Dear children! Today again I am calling you to prayer to complete surrender to God. You know that I love you and am coming here out of love so I could show you the path to peace and salvation for your souls. I want you to obey me and not permit satan to seduce you. Dear children, satan is very strong and, therefore, I ask you to dedicate your prayers to me so that those who are under his influence can be saved. Give witness by your life. Sacrifice your lives for the salvation of the world. I am with you, and I am grateful to you, but in heaven you shall receive the Father’s reward which He has promised to you. Therefore, dear children, do not be afraid. If you pray, satan cannot injure you even a little bit because you are God’s children and He is watching over you. Pray and let the rosary always be in your hand as a sign to satan that you belong to me. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Medjugorje message, February 25, 1988

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Could it be Nyctalopia? I don’t want to dramatize this too much, but when everything went pitch black and suddenly my car ended up in the wrong lane facing the oncoming traffic after hitting the curve pretty hard, I only had one word in my head. Night blindness. I was sitting in the driver seat, trying to calm down my panicked mind and racing heart while I was figuring out what had just happened. Luckily, no other cars were involved, and I only managed to damage my two tires and rims, but I knew that things could have been much worse.

So how do you go for almost 33 years without realizing that you have night blindness? For my first 20 years, I was more blinded by the city lights of Kunsan, and Metropolitan Seoul. There were lights everywhere. Then I moved to the States into the deep Tennessee country and I lost every reason to go out at night. When I did, someone else was most always driving me somewhere. I enjoyed late sunset every night during my year in Seattle. Kona on Big Island was a small town but it was always bustling with its busy night lifestyle. The lights from bars, and street lights were always on, and so I never really had to worry about driving in the darkness. I never had to face it directly.

Being a trucker was never really my dream, so I am not so devastated about this new turn out. Mental darkness is way worse than physical night blindness, and I would choose night blindness over depression any day. I don’t have a night job, and I don’t like staying out late. The only reason I would stay out late would be to go on a date night with my boyfriend and God has sent me a man who wouldn’t hesitate to pick me up and drive me home every night.

“Maybe this means you have to marry me so I don’t have to drive back home at night after we hang out.”

I told him jokingly after my accident. we laughed. I know I scared him when I called him to come to get me. We were out there somewhere on the quiet road waiting for the towing truck to get there. It took the truck two hours to arrive. We fell asleep in the car. When we opened our eyes, the headlight from the towing truck was blinding us. Too much darkness, and now too much light, I thought. It was a night of two extremes.

It was way past midnight when I got home. I quickly jumped into bed after washing my face, still unsettled from the dramatic event. I worried about the bills I am going to have to pay to clean up the most recent mess I have made. It meant no driving for me at night from now on, and I was ok with that. I didn’t even feel like driving during the day. I never liked driving. In bed, I kept I reminiscing my younger days when everything was so much simpler. I rode buses, and walked everywhere. I really missed those days. But soon, I shook my head to separate myself from going deeper and deeper into my pity party. Things could have been way worse. I could have hurt myself, or hurt someone. It’s good that I now learned what I needed to know. It’s always better late than never.

Eventually, my thoughts reached where it should have been all along. I thought about God.  I thanked Him for His protection, and that’s when I remembered the rosary.

Couple of weeks ago, I had put my rosary in my purse. On that particular day, I just felt like keeping the rosary with me at all times as a sign of protection. I had no doubt that the rosary saved me from that incident. Here was another miracle, another sign, telling me that God is always near, through His Son Jesus, Mother Mary, and His angels. And who am I to receive such a gift, and a life-saving reminder? I am just another ordinary girl He has created in Love yet was touched by the original sin, and always exposed to the evil hands of Satan. But God has broken the evil plan of Satan through His only Son Jesus. His faithful protection extends far beyond my imagination, and it always excels my limited human concepts and understandings.

So with that reminder and empowerment, I started another day with more confidence. I would never drive at night anymore, but somehow, I am almost relieved that I am forbidden to do so by my new found condition, Nyctalopia. Perhaps through this yet another limitation of mine, God is saying, “You belong to the light of the Day, not to the darkness of the Night. You belong to Me for eternity.”

* To be updated on Medjugorje Messages, and the significance of Rosary, visit the wonderful blog website at http://crownofstars.blogspot.com/  or click: Crown of Stars