Angels in our midst
One day I brought my mother to hospital for a series of tests for her serious condition. We were there for hours waiting, meeting doctors and going through various procedures. I knew when we left the hospital that she felt very low emotionally. Driving home, I sensed that she needed something to break the dark spell of the hospital. We passed a cute coffee-shop that we had previously visited on occasion. It would be a good diversion to stop for a little treat. I pulled into a parking slot in front of a busy parade of shops, down the road, and we went for our coffee.
Later, in lifted spirits, we were ambling back arm-in-arm, when, looking down the street, I saw off in the distance, what seemed to be two men standing next to the car. I told my mother to keep walking on slowly while I ran off to investigate. As I arrived at the car, I saw only one man; he was just finishing clamping the back wheel! My heart absolutely sank – ‘not now, not today’! I rushed up and pleaded with him, “Oh please, please don’t do that!” But I knew once the clamp was locked in place, there was little that can be done. All I could think of was how this would stress my mother further and undo all the good of the past hour.
And then the strangest thing happened. The young man turned around and looked at me. He had the warmest, friendliest face and a gorgeous smile and in the gentlest voice, he said, “Okay, just go and put a euro in the machine over there.”
Dumbstruck, I stood up and walked over to the machine. When I got back to the car, he and the clamp were gone, nowhere to be seen. Mam arrived up and asked what had happened. We sat into the car whilst I tried to explain this strange occurrence.
Months before, a friend had dropped a bunch of tiny, silver angels into my handbag. I thought I had purged them all but, seemingly out of nowhere, there was one of these little silver angels glinting in the sun on the dashboard.
I often wonder, why are angels the one recurring aspect of scripture that we seem least likely to take seriously?
Image by Andrzej Rembowski from Pixabay
