Do you think angels have wings? I don't. But, in considering angels and wings, I realized that they give us wings, if we let them. ...And how they make us soar.
In my very first entry I wrote about looking backwards. I am definitely looking forward now. Looking beyond the here, now and back then. Perhaps the reversal in view is due to feeling more mortal as I get older. Whatever the reason, I am grateful for new perspective.
Supposing for a moment that angels don't have wings; what or who are angels? I believe it is a job given to people just like us. It could be before we arrive here, while we are here, or after we leave. I can't speak of before I was "here". I don't remember it. Experience tells me, angels minister over all of us that are "here", and the angel could be from "here" or "there". Huh?
Angel #1: Debbie, a vibrant, funny, happy, crazy little girl. We played constantly from the second grade, until I moved away when I was eleven. After that we visited each other two or three times a year and were brides maids in each others weddings.
Debbie had Cystic Fibrosis. While an adult might shy away from asking uncomfortable questions, children do not. I remember asking Debbie if she was afraid of dying. She wasn't. She always went through life with a happy hopeful attitude. Hopeful to the point that she married and had beautiful baby boy. Something Doctors thought impossible.
When her little guy was two my dear friend passed away. We were both 25. I tried to see her her before she was gone, but I was unable to. The call came before I could finish packing. I wanted to say good bye.
Several months later I attended a church service in a very special place. By coincidence (I don't think so) her favorite aunt was also in attendance. We had not laid eyes on each other since I was a little girl. After the service was over, I found her and told her I was "Kimmy", Debbie's friend. She knew me instantly. While we talked for a time, we realized neither one of us had said goodbye. I know, with the Lord's help, Debbie brought us together in that sacred place so we could both say our good bye's. From that moment on, I knew without a doubt that there is much more for us after we are finished with mortality. I also new that Heavenly Father loves me and knows each one of us individually. He has to. He gave such personal comfort in a world full of infinitely more significant problems. He allowed a small good bye to take place for just two, of his multitudes of daughters, in such a beautiful way. Debbie is an angel "there".
Debbie had Cystic Fibrosis. While an adult might shy away from asking uncomfortable questions, children do not. I remember asking Debbie if she was afraid of dying. She wasn't. She always went through life with a happy hopeful attitude. Hopeful to the point that she married and had beautiful baby boy. Something Doctors thought impossible.
When her little guy was two my dear friend passed away. We were both 25. I tried to see her her before she was gone, but I was unable to. The call came before I could finish packing. I wanted to say good bye.
Several months later I attended a church service in a very special place. By coincidence (I don't think so) her favorite aunt was also in attendance. We had not laid eyes on each other since I was a little girl. After the service was over, I found her and told her I was "Kimmy", Debbie's friend. She knew me instantly. While we talked for a time, we realized neither one of us had said goodbye. I know, with the Lord's help, Debbie brought us together in that sacred place so we could both say our good bye's. From that moment on, I knew without a doubt that there is much more for us after we are finished with mortality. I also new that Heavenly Father loves me and knows each one of us individually. He has to. He gave such personal comfort in a world full of infinitely more significant problems. He allowed a small good bye to take place for just two, of his multitudes of daughters, in such a beautiful way. Debbie is an angel "there".
Angel #2: Margaret is my mother in law. I say this even though she has passed, because I know she is still watching over my husband. Margaret was ill all of my husbands life. She was so ill that he never knew if she would be at home or the hospital when he would return from school. As a teenager he tended to surgical wounds, told his mother every detail of his life, and strove never to do anything that would break her heart. He did not take his mother for granted. He knew her time here was uncertain.
Margaret always said that she picked her trials here on earth. She was grateful that the trials she faced involved only her health. Because of the trials she chose she felt blessed that she was spared the pain of wayward children. She was the luckiest woman on the earth. No matter how ill she was she was always happy. My mother in law was an angel "here". Because of her trials, my husband became the man he is. She taught him patience, compassion, and never to take his loved ones for granted. And that, he has never done. I married a great man and he is a great man because of the angel that raised him.
Margaret always said that she picked her trials here on earth. She was grateful that the trials she faced involved only her health. Because of the trials she chose she felt blessed that she was spared the pain of wayward children. She was the luckiest woman on the earth. No matter how ill she was she was always happy. My mother in law was an angel "here". Because of her trials, my husband became the man he is. She taught him patience, compassion, and never to take his loved ones for granted. And that, he has never done. I married a great man and he is a great man because of the angel that raised him.
Angel #3: My mother taught me to have compassion, empathy, and charity (the pure love of Christ) while I was a child. She taught me to understand peoples weaknesses; whether physical, mental or spiritual. Being able to teach a child those principles, by anyone's definition, should make her an angel "here". For me, she is an angel "there". I feel her hold me up through the darkness, because she has been there. She comforts me from the light, because she is there. She is the woman I always knew, as I was looking backward.
Until next time.
Until next time.
