Today was a pretty typical one in my humble abode. I worked, made dinner, did a bit of housework, watched the news, answered to callings of “Mom?”, and ran a couple of errands. Nothing remarkable for the most part – until late this evening.

After sitting down at my desk to browse the news and check in on Facebook, I saw the word “angel” three times in the span of a minute or two. As I sit here typing, I recall seeing Clarence, an angel from It’s a Wonderful Life, in a clip from the documentary Freakonomics that I just finished watching before sitting down at my desk tonight. (That brings the count of angel references up from three to four.)

Why is this significant? I’m not really sure. I don’t know what God is revealing to me at the moment, but knowing what kind of God it is that I serve, these angelic references were put before me for a magnificent reason! (Can I get an amen?!)

A recent sermon at church was all about the presence of angels, and shortly thereafter, my Sunday school class engaged in a discussion on the same topic. I guess this brings the angel reference count up to six now.

Angels. They’re all around us. They are the reason why we survive near-misses. Some of those misses are readily apparent – escaping an accident before your eyes – while others occur unbeknownst to us immediately – misplacing car keys and showing up late someplace or missing appointments altogether. Make no mistake about it, angels are real and they are sent to serve a purpose.

As a Christian, I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God’s intervention. The angels in the midst have undoubtedly intervened on my behalf more times than I can even imagine.

The incident that I remember most occurred when I was a young mother. My then-husband and I had packed everything but the kitchen sink into our infant son’s diaper bag for a trip around the highway loop to see my mom. (There’s no such thing as packing lightly when babies are involved.) The walk from our condo to the car was short and the surfaces upon which we walked were hard.

What do hard surfaces have to do with anything? Well, when we reached the car, we settled our son into the middle of the back seat and before we could drive away, somehow, managed to lose the car key! We frantically retraced our steps, tore the interior of the car upside down (or so it seemed), illuminated the area with a flashlight, and looked in places where they keys couldn’t possibly have been. All to no avail.

The trip to mom’s house would not be made that evening. They key had been lost, but neither of us even heard the familiar clanking of a set of keys hitting the ground. How was that even possible? The car key was on a ring with at least two other keys (the key to our condo and the mailbox key). Surely we would have heard them hit the ground!

There was something about the mysterious nature of how we seemingly lost the key, but I never doubted for one second that He was intervening on our behalf. Getting the spare key from the house wasn’t even a consideration, because I could feel that a higher being had a hand in this. He was protecting us from some sort of danger. I’ve always been convinced of that. I don’t know what lurking danger was kept at bay, but I firmly believe that angels were in the midst that evening.

Several weeks later, the set of keys turned up in a manner that only He could script! (Teary-eyed just typing this.) The keys were on a chain that had a “drop in the nearest mailbox if found” dog tag of sorts that my bank had given me when I opened my account years earlier. Apparently, someone found the set of keys and dropped it into a mailbox as the dog tag instructed. Tears again! The keys made their way to the local post office where none other than MY MOM had them fall into her hands while working her shift one evening. A coworker of hers found the keys while sorting a pile of odd things that sometimes ended up in mailboxes. The coworker recognized my name, which was engraved one of those cutesy vanity license plate thingies that you put onto your key-ring. Since my name is rather unique (finally, it counted for something), the coworker immediately took they keys to my mom and the rest is a mysterious, God-breathed history.

I’ll be honest with you, my faith had been shaken and weak for a number of years prior to the angel/key thing, but my outlook began to change after that incredible series of events. If I didn’t believe in angels before the evening that I lost my keys, I became a firm believer that night, and my belief was reaffirmed once they keys were found and returned weeks later!

Do you believe in angels?

P.S. – I do believe in angels, but have never kept my house and car keys on the same ring after that mysterious night. I call it “using the good sense that God gave me”.

NOTE TO SELF: Tell oldest son this story.

I ran across the following picture and message on my Facebook page tonight and know it’s worth sharing. May you find comfort that His army of angels is out there protecting us – even when we aren’t aware.

Stay blessed!

CC

Me: God, can I ask You a question?

God: Sure

Me: Promise You won’t get mad

God: I promise

Me: Why did You let so much stuff happen to me today?

God: What do you mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late

God: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start

God: Okay

Me: At lunch they made my sandwich wrong & I had to wait

God: Hmm

Me: On the way home, my phone went DEAD, just as I picked up a call

God: All right

Me: And on top of it all off, when I got home ~I just wanted to soak my feet in my new foot massager & relax, BUT it wouldn’t work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did You do that?

God: Let me see, the death angel was at your bed this morning & I had to send one of My Angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that

Me (humbled): OH

GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)

God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick & I didn’t want you to catch what they had, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.

Me (embarrassed): Okay

God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.

Me (softly): I see God

God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.

Me: I’m Sorry God

God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to Trust Me…. in All things , the Good & the bad.

Me: I will trust You.

God: And don’t doubt that My plan for your day is Always Better than your plan.

Me: I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, Thank You for Everything today.

God: You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after My children…