I’ve been thinking about angels this weekend as my family went through a fairly traumatic experience.
After all, angels usually appear in the unusual when you least expect them. Or do they?
I taught my children the way to recognize an angel is by it’s first words: “Fear not.” Both the Old and New Testaments recount angels arriving with messages from God who greet recipients with those words.
But this weekend I got to thinking perhaps they mean more than, “Don’t worry. I may look frightening, but I’m from God and it will be okay.”
Many people have stories about angelic encounters. I’m not sure if I’ve been met by an actual messenger wearing wings sent by God, though I’ve always felt in one case someone behaved like an angel.
A man dressed in white
A woman driving a sedan ran into the back of our car on December 31, 1985, smashing us into on-coming traffic.
I can still see the horror on the driver’s face as he hurtled towards me with little room to miss hitting us head-on.
We both yanked our steering wheels to the left as hard as we could and managed to hit on our right front bumpers.
In the awful moments as I tried to make sense of what had happened, a man in white who should not have been walking down that lonely stretch of road without a sidewalk, tugged open my door. “You got to get the kids out of the car, ma’am. There’s gas all over the road and the car could blow.”
You pull out the child closest to the door. It was a no-brainer.
I never saw him again to thank him. I just remember he wore white.
Of course he could have been a sailor, we weren’t far from the Navy Subase in Groton, Connecticut, but it was winter and he wouldn’t have worn a white uniform. I’m just thankful he was there.
Was he an angel? I didn’t see any wings, though I wasn’t looking, either.
A child’s view
This weekend, my adorable 15 month-old fell and injured her head just before her family was due to attend a party at our house.
Still wearing her velvet rose-red party dress, she ended up being airlifted to Oakland Children’s Hospital for observation.
In the flurry of letting prayer lines know, calling family members, greeting guests, making the punch, and trying not to listen for the helicopter taking the baby south,I numbed my emotions so I could get through.
Two lapses of fearful tears for me, but the show must go on. Besides the baby’s brother was with us and we had to shield him.
Into the party walked a guest I had not expected: Hillary.
A beautiful, devout young woman, Hillary lived with us years ago and is close to our family. She greeted the party goers and then sat and talked with my husband while my a friend Dave saw to the barbequeing.
Both Hillary and Dave chatted with me during the party, helping to calm me down even as my emotions flew and my tears wanted to fall.
Fear not, Hillary practically said, reminding me with her sweet words and her normalcy that the Lord was with me.
She stayed until early evening, long after the party ended, chatting, sharing stories, cleaning up and helping bank the fears.
She’s not an angel, but on Saturday, she acted like one. Dave, too. 🙂
Be not afraid
“Fear not, the Lord is with you,” the angel Gabriel said to Mary. He brought impossible news, but first he brought the comfort that Mary was not alone. The Lord was with her, throughout the years of her life and she did not need to fear.
The Lord was with my friends this weekend–in the prayers of His saints for a little girl and her family; in the words of comfort; in the reminders from a beautiful young woman of the things of God.
Thanks be to God.
Oh, and the little returned home two days later; she was fine.
Thanks be to God.
I’m so sorry your family had to go through that experience, Michelle. But am thankful it’s behind you and that the Lord sent you a comforter and the reminder to “Fear not.” These days we all need that message.