Remembering my Mum’s Angel story.

See that you don’t hate one of these little children. For I , Jesus tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.

Matthew 18:10 (Bold added but otherwise almost exactly as it is.)

My mum unashamedly talked to me about angels. She often told my sister and I that we had our personal angel. This belief became part of our faith in and love for God.

Are not angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 1 : 14

Here is the story Mum told to me several times while growing up, so the wording changed according to my age. For example:

You were in my tummy

became

I was pregnant with you

then

I was expecting you.

People were angry with each other

became

People were fighting

Then

People were killing each other.

It was late afternoon when a telegram messenger (boy) arrived on his bicycle with a brown envelope in his hands. Inside on a strip of paper in red, capital letters were the words: DAD HEART ATTACK COME.

Mum and dad were both nurses, and Mum was pregnant with me, her first child. They made the necessary arrangements to leave that evening for the 2,171km journey, a 25-hour drive in their two door morris minor.

It was about 3am in the morning when tiredness took control and they just stopped. No chosen spot, but by the side of the road on the red dirt, well off the tarr. In the deep darkness of a vast open space with no lights from any town, they slept exactly as they stopped.

There was a sudden noise. Mum said it was the sound of a jalopy with lots of its parts loose. Neither of them were afraid. A person all in white wanted to speak to dad. Dad rolled down the window. Mum said he had a big round, friendly face that he put right into the car. His message was this.

DRIVE ON.

DO NOT STOP.

With the light of a line of an early sunrise across the end of the visual earth, the car that had appeared vanished silently.

They obeyed with a wide awake energy, completing the journey in good time.

The newspapers later gave an account of severe fighting and murders in the area near where they had slept.

Mum often ended the story with

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Psalm 34 : 7 (or this one: For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways . Psalm 91 :11 or another: Praise the Lord, you his angels who do His bidding who obey His word. Psalms 103:20 )

Here is a thought about challenges and courage:

Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new centre of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.

Oprah

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;

Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill

Thank you for letting me share this childhood story. It was a privilege to revisit it. Mum died of ovarian cancer at the age of 72. Her faith in God continues in us, her girls.

Sandy 🙂