ANGELS BY MY SIDE

INTRODUCTION

At the age of eleven, I had an experience that I can describe as a slight variation of the words in a Steven Spielberg classic movie title.  My experience was a “close encounter of the angelic kind.”  I was officially introduced to my guardian angel and with that encounter, my life changed.

There are things that occur in our lives where “turning back” to a consciousness in which we existed one second before is no longer an option.  You change.  Your world changes.  What was once important to us and what is important to us now changes.  I awakened to a reality that there are worlds existing within our world, that is, the world of the angels shares space with us.  I came to recognize that there are angels standing by us. Every beat of our heart, every breath that we take, we have angels by our side. I remember years ago hearing Rev. Thomas Keller of Virginia Beach preach.  He said,  “When God looks down he sees two of you walking side by side, you and your guardian angel.”

There any many ways that God supports, guides, loves and protects us.  The angels are one of those ways. The angels are standing with us because God has placed them there. This truth is reflected to us by the words of Psalm 91, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways,” God has placed the angels as our guardians to keep us on the path known as ‘God’s will” for our lives.  Our Father does know best, and yet loves us so much that He gives us the gift of free will.  The angels are there when our free will guides us right into a brick wall, or causes us to stumble over our own ego and pride.  The angels are faithfully with us to help us. They brush our knees off whenever we’ve fallen and encourage us to choose more wisely in our future use of free will. Someone once confided in me that she felt her angel must be pretty disgusted with her, because this individual kept making the same dumb mistakes in choosing male partners.  I replied, “Not at all.  The angels simply encourage us to choose again, and this time choose more wisely using the wisdom we have gained from our past mistakes.”

Sometimes the distractions and negativities around us cause us to turn our eyes away from God and the many gifts He gives to us in our lives.  I hope as you read this book you are comforted in knowing the angels are always with you.

I like to imagine that when God created us He called upon the angels and asked them to get out their angel cameras and take a divine baby picture of us.  Those of you who are parents have probably received a “first photo” of your newborn from the hospital where the baby was born.  Perhaps God says to the angels, “It’s your job to support my children in remembering to see themselves as I saw them when I first created them.  To see themselves with light sight, to see themselves through my eyes.”  And so the angels are by our sides whispering to us, “Remember.  Remember God’s vision of you.”  I adore Albert Einstein’s words, “I want to know God’s thoughts.  Everything else is details.”  The angels are by our sides reminding us that each of us began as a God-thought.

For myself, I have felt the presence of the angels when I sat by my Dad’s bedside as he was dying; I know many of you, too, have had similar experiences with those you love dearly.  When someone is dying, it’s “standing room only” when it comes to the presence of angels.  There were angels by Dad’s side, helping him close his eyes to earth and open them to heaven.  They came to carry Dad to the waiting arms of Jesus.  There were angels by my side to help me embrace God’s peace in the midst of this great loss in my life.