I received some great responses to my question, “Has Anyone Reading This Ever Seen an Angel?” Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories. Here they are for the rest of us to read, with a little editing for brevity and clarity.
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I had gone through a brutal battle with the church [I was the pastor of]. I had decided to resign but still struggled with it. A group of us gathered at my house for prayer. There was a knock on the front door (which no one comes to). My wife answered. She yelled for me to come to the door, but when I got there, no one was there.
My wife said this man told her, ?Let your husband know he made the right decision.? She said, ?Wait here. I know my husband would want to talk to you.? The man replied, ?I have to go.? My wife asked him who he was. He replied, ?I am an angel.? Then he was gone.
You have to know the whole story to realize the absolute blessing of that encounter.
–Jim Watson
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I was with a team of climbers looking for Noah?s Ark on Mt. Ararat in 1985. We were attacked around midnight by PKK guerillas and marched down the mountain at gunpoint. At about 10,000 feet altitude we stopped and they began to search our belongings. Two of us were seated in the background on some rocks when a man with very blue eyes (whom we had never seen and was dressed like the local Kurds) came and covered us with a blanket, as it was very cold. In a few minutes we were told to line up (all five of us), while two of the terrorists lined up in front of us with rifles, which they pointed at us. All of a sudden, out of the darkness, one of the terrorists pointed at the sky to his fellow terrorists and then shouted to us to go home.
–Bill Crouse
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Alas, I did not see the angel who saved my life when I was about ten. It was behind me, and pulled me up and out of the way of an approaching car. I would have been killed or horribly wounded. I felt the hand on my right shoulder, but when I looked behind me to see who had saved me, no one was close enough to have done it. Still haven?t forgotten that almost sixty years later. Eager to meet that one someday!?
–Linda Terry
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–Trudie Schultz
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Was I just visited by an angel?
When she was first spotted at our church, she was praying in the entryway (narthex). It was the Sunday before Christmas and this visitor sought help. She was on a mission to help people recently made homeless by the fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She had a list of people in need? two firemen, two policemen, and a pastor. All had fought the fires, and while doing so lost their homes, cars, and all their possessions. The pastor lost his church. Would ours be a church that would help, she prayed? As a church officer, I listened, wrote down the information she provided, and told her we would see what we could do. She seemed satisfied with that. Ours was one of many churches she visited that day. Later I learned she worked in our city during the week and spent her weekends ministering to those in need in Gatlinburg. She donated her car, persuaded one of her children to donate their car, and set about finding other ways to meet the needs of these hurting people.
Sally knocked on the doors of a number of churches seeking support for the needy in Gatlinburg. Her heart ached for them. She returned to the campgrounds every weekend to spend time with them, minister to them, live with them and to share their hardships. She was in earnest at every church she went to for support. When she returned to our church, I was a little embarrassed to tell her that it was taking time to work through our processes to get some funding approved. Processes have their place, but Sally succeeded in transferring some of her ?knock at midnight? earnestness on me. And like the friend in Luke 11, I found her persistence compelling. Later, hearing that we would respond, she met me with joy and tears in her eyes, because apparently none of the other churches that heard her knock had even hinted at responding.
So what do I take away from my encounter with Sally? Was she an angel? Perhaps. I know there are some people in Gatlinburg who see her as their own personal angel. Hebrews 13:2 tells us not to neglect to show hospitality to strangers, because by doing so, some have entertained angels unawares. So when I met her the first time, perhaps I should have been more responsive. Our church responded to the need that she identified, albeit somewhat slowly, and perhaps a little too deliberately, but our response, was a good one. Still, I think she interpreted that we were not ready to meet a greater need that she saw as urgent. Sometimes, I think angels like Sally are sent to inform us of the work that the Lord has prepared for us. We are given that work is an opportunity and a responsibility, and like the worker in Matthew 25 who buried his talent, when we fail to respond to that work, in the end the talent (or work) is taken away and given to someone else, and our angel?like Sally?just moves on.
?For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.? Ephesians 2:10 ESV
–John Plant
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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2 thoughts on “Your Responses to My Question, Have You Seen an Angel?”
Once when on vacation in the Ozarks my husband and I heard a man playing the bag pipes. We walked up to him and told him how much we appreciated his music. He was playing hymns. My husband took a picture of him, and then we left the area for a few minutes, and when we returned he was gone. We looked at our phone to see his picture, and there was nothing there! An angel? Maybe not, but our camera was working perfectly before and after!
Ha! A very strange coincidence or an angel likes to play bagpipes in the Ozarks. Thanks, Joan.