A truck driver speeding down the highway got quite the surprise when the officer who pulled him over decided to pray with with instead of giving him a ticket. That driver’s name was Rodney Gibson.
When Indiana State Police Sgt. Todd Durnil pulled Gibson over, he could tell something was not quite right.
He seemed very “upset and angry,” Durnil reported to ABC, and he could tell it ran deeper than a traffic strop. There was “something else going on,” he said.
It turns out, the man was so torn up because he was wrestling to accept that his daughter’s breast cancer wasn’t going away. His mind was so wrapped up in it, in fact, that he didn’t even notice how fast he was going.
Sgt. Durnil was desperately trying to think of a way to get through to Gibson.
That’s when a little shiny reflection above the truck driver’s head caught his eye. It was an angel pinned to his sun visor. And it just so happened to be the exact same one that the officer owned himself.
Durnil looked up at the angel and told Gibson, “thinking how we’re probably not all that different.”
A teary-eyed Gibson replied that it was a gift he received from his daughter. He had recently found out that her six-year battle with breast cancer was about to get worse and she probably wasn’t going to live much longer.
“I also thought, this man already has enough, I’m not going to write him any paperwork for a ticket or even a warning,” said Durnil.
Before he left, Durnil asked Gibson if there was anything else he could do to help. The man replied, “Do you know how to pray?”
“Here I was thinking this man needs prayer, and now he’s asking me for a prayer,” said Durnil. “The good Lord put us together for a purpose.”
“Putting those two things together, I almost fell out of the side of the truck there.”
That’s when the officer removed his hat, got down on his knees and held Gibson’s hand as he said a prayer. The simple act left both men with tears in their eyes.
Gibson later called in to say ‘thank you,’ and the station gave his number to Durnil so they could keep in contact.
Durnil said, “I hope everyone that hears about this is one more person that can pray for him and his family.”
Praise God for officers like Durnil who allow compassion and grace to trump the law when the situation calls for it. What a remarkable way to take care of your citizens.
