Angelic Visitations

The Bible teaches “some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).  The once popular television series, “Touched By An Angel,” lent credence to the idea that angels come to our aid in every day life.  Craft stores still feature a wide array of angel displays. 

Some years ago a pastor’s daughter living in Idaho wrote a book entitled, “The Man Who Talked with Angels.”   Readers thrilled to learn about the late Rev. Roland Buck’s late night angelic encounters.  The book was the sequel to “Angels on Assignment” by Charles and Frances Hunter, as told by Pastor Buck.  These were incredible accounts written by credible ministers of the Gospel!

Those who know me say I’m analytical.  I’m cautious not to over-sensationalize the Gospel.  But when it comes to angels I’m eager to share the following stories.

In late November of 1977, Lori and I encountered an angelic visitation on the outskirts of Walnut, Mississippi.  We, along with another couple, were returning to Springfield, Missouri from Gadsden, Alabama, following our Thanksgiving break from college.  Our timing was bad, as that remote part of Mississippi had just been blanketed with an unseasonably heavy ice storm.

The battery died in our 1966 Plymouth.  It was approximately 2:00 a.m. and we were stranded on an icy hillside.  The night air was crisp and the snow crackled under our feet.  The icy conditions made it impossible to walk and we had no heat.  After we panicked, we prayed!

From time to time, we tried to start the car but the battery remained too weak to turn over the engine.  We wondered what to do when a vehicle approached from the direction of town.  Two men appeared in a city truck.  Unfortunately, they carried no battery cables with them.  While conversing with these men, a third man suddenly appeared.  He was dressed like the others so we thought nothing of this interloper.

While conversing with the original two men, our car unexpectedly started.  “There you go,” said the third man.  And then he vanished!  The two puzzled city workers asked us if we knew “that man.”  “We assumed he was with you,” we replied.  This event took place almost 41 years ago and we still rejoice over God’s goodness to us that night in freezing, remote Walnut, Mississippi.  Heaven dispatched an angel with mechanical abilities and dressed him like a city employee.  We unknowingly entertained a heavenly visitor!

Our second angel intervention took place a few years later.  Like many newly married couples, Lori and I wrestled with finances.  Our money seemed to run out before each month!  Somehow I had obtained a car loan.  We thought we were in “high cotton,” that is, until we got behind in our monthly payments.  We tried our best, but eventually the bank threatened repossession.  It’s not that we wouldn’t pay; we just didn’t have the money. 

Evidently, God grew weary of my incessant begging and dispatched an angel to help us.  A letter from the bank came in the mail one day and when I saw the return address, I placed it on a high shelf.  Out of sight, out of mind!  However, I could not get that letter off my mind and with trepidation finally faced the inevitable.

When I opened the envelope, I saw stamped across the top of the original loan papers, “Paid in full.”  When I called the bank, the loan officer told me a distinguished looking gentleman had walked into the bank and paid the balance in cash.  Again, heaven dispatched an angel to meet a desperate need.  By the way, the first two angels were older gentlemen who had white hair! (Perhaps the same angel!)

The next angel story is my favorite.  When our oldest daughter, Sarah, was a toddler, she climbed a tall stool while playing on my wife’s grandparents’ concrete patio.  I was standing at the opposite corner of the patio not paying attention, when I turned around just in time to see my baby girl lose her balance and fall head first to the floor.  I had time only to cry out, “Jesus!”

Unseen hands caught her midair and lowered my child to the floor.   She was placed on the concrete like a mother gentling placing her baby on a bed.  Sarah was spared from serious injury or worse. 

Do you believe in angels?  I believe we all entertain them unaware. I can tell you that angels have been spotted in Walnut, Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama, and Lebanon, Indiana; and I’m sure in your sphere of life, too!