7 Lessons From Heaven

by Mary C Neal

  Stories of angels pepper the pages of the Bible and are mentioned in the holy texts of most major religions. In heaven, they form God’s praise and worship team in heaven (Isaiah 6:1–3; Luke 2:13–14; Revelation 4–5, 8; 5:11; 7:11). On Earth, they do the work of heaven as messengers, protectors, and comforters. I love the line from Psalm 103 (at the top of this chapter) where they are described as “mighty ones who do His bidding.”

  Throughout the Bible, angels suddenly appear and, just as quickly, disappear. They came to people in human form, animal form, and even inanimate form (Genesis 18, Numbers 22, Exodus 23). They can look like lightning, fire, polished metal, or precious stones, and they can appear as men or women, can stand, sit, and eat, and have wind in their wings.

  Then, as now, when angels show up, humans are usually taken by surprise. Whether it’s this element of surprise, or the sudden experience of a being of such great power, angelic visits in scripture often begin with reassurance. The heavenly visitor first says, “Do not be afraid” or “Do not fear.” But uncertainty about why they have come is never an issue, at least once we’ve received what they have come to say or do. Clearly, these “mighty ones” can speak to us in whatever way we will understand, and they appear to us in whatever form will achieve their mission (Genesis 18:1–19, Daniel 10:5–6).

  Karen, who wrote me from St. Louis, Missouri, told about her desperate prayer to a God she thought of as far away. Then she “saw” angels near:

  My body, mind, and soul were so crushed by the physical and emotional abuse at the hands of my new husband that I got down on my knees beside my bed, buried my face in my hands, and wept inconsolably, as I called out for what I thought was a faraway, unapproachable God to help me.

  Suddenly, outside my side window, I heard beautiful singing that sounded like falling waters, a waterfall gently rushing in a perfection of three male voices, praising God’s mercy. I jumped up to see them and the voices moved to the front window. I ran over to the front window, wanting to see them, but couldn’t with my human eyes. But I could hear them clearly, more precisely than any sound with my ears. I saw them in spirit—there is no other way to explain it. Their presence was large, comforting, beckoning me to drink of God’s glory and peace.

  —KAREN, ST. LOUIS, MO

  We find many stories of the remarkable protection angels bring to vulnerable people—often but not always in response to prayer:

  A young woman walking home from work in Brooklyn had to go past a young man loitering against a building. She was fearful; there had been muggings in the area recently, and she prayed for protection. She had to go right by him, and although she could feel him watching her, he didn’t move.

  A short time after she reached home, she heard sirens and saw police lights. The next day, her neighbor told her someone had been raped, in the same place and just after she had passed by the young man. She wondered if the man she’d passed was the rapist, because if it were, she could identify him. She called the police and discovered they had a suspect in custody. She identified him in a lineup and asked the policeman, “Why didn’t he attack me? I was just as vulnerable as the next woman who came along.”

  The policeman was curious, too, so he described the woman and asked the suspect about her. He said, “I remember her. But why would I have bothered her? She was walking down the street with two big guys, one on either side of her.”1

  When I was in college, a friend and I were clowning around riding on top of an elevator (not in it, but on top of it). Elevators in those days had a heavy counterweight (perhaps they still do) that moves in the opposite direction of the elevator.

  We were on our way down and, for whatever reason, I had my foot halfway over the opening and halfway on the top of the elevator. I was not paying particular attention to it, but at one point I heard a loud voice say, “Get your foot out of that opening now!”

  I quickly pulled back my foot and immediately the counterweight slammed past. Had my foot been caught by the counterweight, it probably would have been sheared off or crushed. I believe God knew that through running, I would be able to speak with Him and that He didn’t want to take that away from me before it even began (my running career began about ten years later).

  —BARRY, GREEN BAY, WI

  One of the most vivid descriptions of an angel came to me via Facebook from a woman named Kelly. Her angelic visitation happened in childhood, but her ability to recall details of appearance and manner is striking:

  I have been a registered nurse for almost twenty-five years, working in hospice and critical care. Ever since I was a tiny girl, I always knew that God was real. When I was ten years old, I suffered extreme physical and verbal abuse from my alcoholic stepparents.

  One afternoon, I was alone in my bedroom, sitting on my bed coloring in a coloring book. All of a sudden, I looked up and an angel was standing in the doorway of my room. He was very tall (at least seven feet) as he had to bend down under the doorway to look at me. He was so beautiful! He had blond curly hair and intense blue eyes. He was wearing a white robe with a gold rope belt. He had sandals on his feet. He did not have wings, but I knew he was an angel. He stood five feet from me, and he was as real as anyone. He was solid-looking, not transparent like a ghost. He radiated light from his skin and his beauty was breathtaking. He looked into my eyes with so much love, and he smiled at me.

  I remember this as vividly as if it just happened yesterday, and I am fifty-three years old now.

  —KELLY, NEWPORT, RI

  Unfortunately, we suffer from a few misconceptions about angels, too.

  For one, as enthralling as it might be to imagine that good people become angels after death, there is no biblical basis for this hope. Psalm 8:5 makes clear that humans are different from angels. For another, it is equally clear that they work for God, not for humans (Revelation 19:10, Psalm 103:20). And finally, like all of creation, angels are under God’s authority, and although we may feel a special affection for them, we are not to worship them (Revelation 22:8–9).

  ESCORTS FROM THIS LIFE TO THE NEXT

  Many who tend to people in their final moments tell stories of angels appearing. Sometimes angels seem to wait until the dying individuals are ready, but sometimes they arrive early, seeming to beckon them along toward heaven. Witnessing this can be confusing and frightening to family or friends, but more often the presence of angels brings comfort and a deep sense of God’s loving, personal care:

  My mother had been diagnosed with emphysema, and her doctors believed she only had a short time to live. Because of her deep faith, my mother experienced a very holy death. She was not afraid to die. In fact, she looked forward to joining my daddy and others who had gone before her.

  My friend Sue would often play her harp, and we would all gather around my mother’s bed and sing praise music. Once, Mother bolted straight up in the bed and said, “Am I dead yet? This dying is not bad at all!”

  One day, Bishop Frank held a Diocesan Convention and wanted to bring Mother Holy Communion before the meeting. When he walked into her bedroom, she said to me, “Emmy, did you see that angel fly in over Frank’s head when he opened the door?” I hadn’t seen it, but she clearly had.

  Frank gave her Communion and prayed with her. A few hours later, Mother called me into her room and said, “Emmy, do you see those angels in the corner of my room? There’s a path of beautiful flowers on either side, and the street is lined with many, many angels.” The picture was so vivid to her. As I sat quietly by her bed, she said, “Emmy, the angels— do you see them now? They want me to go with them. I believe I am ready to go. Please come hold my hand and help me join them. Wait! Honey, call your brother to be with us.” As we stood on either side of her bed, she said, “I am ready to join them….” Then she quietly departed with the angels.

  Death for my mother came gently, beautifully, and in the presence of the holy angels.

  —EMMY, JACKSONVILLE, FL

  ENVOYS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

  N
ot only do angels comfort the hurting or dying, but they are also sources of great encouragement. The apostle Paul was grateful for the encouraging message brought by an angel, who assured all who sailed with him to Rome that they would arrive safely (Acts 27).

  I have personally been told many stories from people who have received comfort and encouragement from the appearance of an angel at just the right moment, and this may be the most common type of story I have heard. Wonderfully, people are always left with a deep and long-lasting sense of God’s peace and love:

  When I was twenty-four years old, my girlfriend and I accidentally started a little family, so I had to drop out of college just before my senior year. I was working as a line cook and was miserable with myself for my recent choices. On one particularly dismal day, I was cooking on the demonstration line—an open line where customers could watch the cooks work—but I purposefully had my back to the crowd. I was thinking of how my life had gone wrong and how I had let down my family. I wasn’t sure if I could actually go on any longer.

  Then I felt an uncontrollable urge to turn around, right then. So I did. Sitting at the counter was an old man wearing a distinctive red hat and drinking coffee. He looked like a typical customer except for a huge smile and an indescribable radiance. I started to talk to him and before I knew it, we were joking around. I suddenly felt great! I was cooking like my normal show-off self and facing the grill, but when I turned back around, the man was gone.

  The café was not a big place, and there is no way he could have left without me seeing him go. I was baffled and quite disappointed that he left without saying good-bye, so I asked the waitress working my section where the old man wearing the red hat and drinking coffee had gone. She said, “What old man? I’ve been here since opening and nobody has sat there all morning.” She looked at me strangely, then said, “Just look at the place setting. It’s untouched.”

  No way, I thought, he was having coffee! He was sipping it as I was talking to him. But when I looked at the counter, the coffee cup was unused and upside down. The place setting was untouched.

  At first I shrugged it off, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then I started to think about the man’s hat. His hat had said something—something important. I don’t know how else to describe it, but the words seemed written upside down and inside out! Yet now I found that I could read it and feel it. It said, “Trust in God.”

  —DAVE, DENVER, CO

  COURIERS OF WARNINGS AND GUIDANCE

  Together with the Holy Spirit, angels often provide information and guidance, as was the case with their messages to Mary, Zechariah, Paul, and many others (Luke 1:11–23; Acts 27:23). Sometimes angels just tell us what to do, as they did when they found a wife for Isaac or when they told Philip where to go (Genesis 24:7; Acts 8:26–29). Sometimes angels appear in person or in a dream at night, perhaps because we are more open then to spiritual reality. Normal dreams are often confusing, but angelic visits are clear, leaving no doubt as to their nature or of the message they bring.

  Every Christmas we remember that angels warned Joseph to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt to save the life of Baby Jesus (Matthew 2:13). Not surprising then that some angel stories contain a warning of some sort.

  In her book A Rustle of Angels, Marilyn Webber writes:

  Angels came to me one night in a dream. There were four angels all dressed in black. Even their wings were black because they were in mourning. These were not the glorious, beautiful angels I wanted to see, but I asked the one closest to me, “Why are you so sad?”

  “We are sad because you are dying,” the angel replied. “Unless something is done, you are going to die.”

  Then they were gone. Instantly, I woke my husband and told him the angel’s message. “What do you think it means?” I probed. I was healthy and had not seen a doctor for four years, but my husband made an appointment for me to see a doctor right away. The doctor did a biopsy and a full battery of tests.

  When I returned for the results, the doctor said, “You have cancer and must have surgery right away. You should be thankful for the warning the angels gave you. With the kind of cancer you have, there are no symptoms until it is too late.” My surgery was on September 2, 1993, and I am still cancer-free.2

  AN ARMY OF PROTECTORS

  At God’s direction, angels can intercede on our behalf and are sometimes charged with guarding us (Psalm 91:11; Zechariah 1:12). Angels who protect seem to use a variety of means to complete God’s work, with varying degrees of visibility, as was the case when Elisha’s servant could not see God’s army of horses and chariots in 2 Kings 6. An angel actually led Peter out of his prison cell, and past danger, before suddenly leaving him (Acts 12:6–10). God sent an angel to protect Daniel from hungry lions (Daniel 6:1–28). And reports of angel intervention on our behalf continue in today’s world:

  A young lady named Myra worked in the inner-city ministry of Teen Challenge in Philadelphia. One neighborhood gang liked to terrorize anyone who tried to enter the Teen Challenge building, and they harassed Myra as well. One night, when she was alone in the building with the gang banging on the door, she felt she should continue to reach out to them with the gospel of Jesus.

  As she opened the door, she breathed a prayer for protection. The boys suddenly stopped their shouting, looked at each other, turned, and left quietly. Myra had no idea why. Later, as the staff people were able to build relationships with the gang members, the ministry director asked them why they dropped their threats against Myra and left her alone that night.

  One young man spoke up, saying, “We wouldn’t dare touch her after her boyfriend showed up. That dude had to be seven feet tall.”

  The director said, “I didn’t know Myra had a boyfriend. But at any rate, she was here alone that night.”

  Another gang member insisted, “No, we saw him. He was right behind her, big as life in his classy white suit.”3

  One day, Jesus motioned to children nearby and then turned to his followers. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). From this story, I believe, came the tradition of guardian angels. After the Cokeville, Wyoming, bombing, many of the young survivors reported seeing an angel over each child’s head.4

  Many people have shared with me their stories of guardian angels. These sometimes come as short vignettes, containing few details. But short or long, I’m always struck by their almost physical certainty about what happened:

  I was about thirteen years old when I was going upstairs to my room, pulling my entire weight on the handrail, when it suddenly came off in my hand. I fell backward, headfirst. Halfway into a terrible fall, I felt a strong hand on my back push me upright. There was nobody there—well, nobody visible!5

  One time when my husband and I went to Bermuda, I tried riding my own motorbike instead of riding on the back of his. I confused the controls and drove it full speed into a stone wall. Just before the bike hit the wall, I felt something like arms lift me off the bike and place me lovingly, gently, on the grass. Even though the bike was destroyed, I didn’t get a scratch.

  —TERRI, PHILADELPHIA, PA

  A couple of years ago, my husband and I developed a close relationship with a precious eight-year-old girl. Her family sat next to us in church every Sunday, and she would draw pictures for us during the sermon. One day at school, she became belligerent, hitting, yelling, and spitting at the other children. This behavior was totally uncharacteristic of her, but the school asked her parents to take her home. A child psychologist diagnosed her as schizophrenic and admitted her to a children’s psychiatric hospital.

  As a member of my church’s healing prayer team, I met weekly with the group to pray for those in need. One morning as we were praying, I had a vision about this little girl. I saw in my mind’s eye a figure who I “knew” was the Archangel Michael. He was standing in the door of the girl’s hospital room, guarding her. He
was large in stature and held a double-edged sword slanted across the open door to her room, barring any entrance. His eyes were fierce. He was dressed like a Roman soldier, with a short tunic gathered at the waist by a leather belt. The “skirt” of his outfit was made of tooled leather strips hanging down to his knees. He wore sandals that were laced and wrapped around his strong legs. I shared my vision with my prayer group as we continued praying.

  The next day, a friend called to say that the girl had been released from the hospital. She was perfectly fine and was back at school being the sweet girl everyone loved. Later when I saw her at church, she leaned over and said, “I have a new friend. His name is Michael, and he takes care of me.”

  —JENNIFER, BOSTON, MA

  ANGELS IN DISGUISE

  Sometimes the presence of an angel is clear and recognizable. Most of the time, however, angels operate undercover and don’t draw attention to themselves. Perhaps a stranger has given valuable advice or assistance in a stressful or dangerous circumstance, only to later disappear.

  Many people have likely interacted with angels without being aware of it, while others may have had an inkling that a supernatural encounter occurred. As Hebrews 13:2 says “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

  In the early ’70s some friends and I met in a town about fifty miles from where I live for coffee and pop. We were talking in general about some of the differences in our churches. A man entered wearing what looked to me like a monk’s habit and a rope belt. He asked if he could join us at the table. He joined the discussion and said that Jesus only asked three things of us: Honor God, Believe in Christ, and love one another. Everything else will fall into place.