– There’s an an­gel flying there, our 2-ye­ar-old exc­lai­med.

– It’s my own gu­ar­di­an an­gel. It will come back soon, he con­ti­nu­ed.

We adults were a bit em­bar­ras­sed and al­so loo­ked out of the win­dow. We saw neit­her an an­gel, nor any ot­her flying cre­a­tu­re. We were won­de­ring if the child re­al­ly saw an an­gel or just a bird.

I was even a bit wor­ried and told eve­ry­bo­dy to keep a ca­re­ful eye on the boy. I did re­mem­ber that many child­ren so­me­ti­mes speak about an­gels. Ma­y­be they re­al­ly see them. The ey­es of ol­der pe­op­le must be too weak to see such won­der­ful mi­rac­les any more.

I re­mem­be­red that there was anot­her an­gel that flew through that same win­dow. Many ye­ars ago I was sit­ting on the li­ving room floor, roc­king our yo­un­gest child who was one ye­ar old. The three-ye­ar-old loo­ked at me, til­ting her head and smi­ling cheer­ful­ly. She said, “Mum­my, don’t you see there’s a small an­gel sit­ting on top of yo­ur head? Now it flew out of that win­dow.”

I was hap­py about the an­gel but al­so a bit wor­ried. I had just tes­ted po­si­ti­ve for preg­nan­cy, and I could not help won­de­ring if the an­gel was re­la­ted to that, or if so­met­hing el­se might hap­pen. Sit­ting in the car that day, I was wor­ried about a pos­sib­le ac­ci­dent.

When I went for my first ma­ter­ni­ty chec­kup, the doc­tor as­ked me if eve­ryt­hing was all right. I said I was not hund­red per­cent sure.

I told the doc­tor about the an­gel my daugh­ter had seen, alt­hough I felt a bit sil­ly about it. I said I had been won­de­ring if we were going to have a han­di­cap­ped child, or if the baby was dead. The doc­tor did not laugh, she on­ly said that can so­me­ti­mes can hap­pen. The ult­ra­sound scan sho­wed no signs of life. Ma­y­be the lit­t­le an­gel had been the soul of the baby whose life had en­ded so pre­ma­tu­re­ly.

At home we tal­ked about the an­gel my daugh­ter had seen. I said that eve­ry one of us has an an­gel, but it is re­al­ly rare to see one.

Then our son said he had not even known it was rare. He said that two ye­ars pre­vi­ous­ly, when he was in kin­der­gar­ten, he had on­ce been the first to get dres­sed for out­doors. When he had gone out­si­de, he had seen two an­gels flut­te­ring around for a while and then le­a­ving. He had not even thought it was so­met­hing ex­cep­ti­o­nal.

It may be that when a per­son sees or feels the pre­sen­ce of an an­gel, they may not want to share it with ot­her pe­op­le. It is such a pre­ci­ous per­so­nal ex­pe­rien­ce.

I al­so re­mem­ber an event from my teen-age ye­ars that I have sha­red with on­ly very few pe­op­le. Be­fo­re con­fir­ma­ti­on school, I was rest­less and did not have a clean cons­cien­ce. But then I ex­pe­rien­ced a chan­ge. I was at spe­ci­al ser­vi­ces in Ou­lu. Sit­ting there, lis­te­ning to the ser­mons, I wan­ted to be­lie­ve. I strong­ly felt that this was the group I wan­ted to be­long to.

When we went back to ser­vi­ces the next day, I cros­sed the street ca­re­les­s­ly and was hit by a car. Lying there in great pain, I he­ard this song:

”You fol­low Je­sus, yo­ur Sa­vi­or dear.

He was­hed yo­ur cons­cien­ce and made it pure.

Yo­ur song con­fes­ses yo­ur joy so true,

though te­ars of sor­row may troub­le you.

To those in dark­ness you seem so poor,

while they build barns for their earth­ly store.

But Je­sus’ king­dom to you drew nigh

and spoke of we­alth that abi­des on high.” (SHZ 319.)

I lis­te­ned to the song and it made me feel bet­ter. I thought it came from a ra­dio or a louds­pe­a­ker. When, la­ter in hos­pi­tal, I as­ked ot­her pe­op­le about that song, my sis­ter and friend, who were there at the time, said they had not he­ard anyt­hing. They thought it must have been an­gels sin­ging.

Whe­ne­ver I hear that song, I re­mem­ber what hap­pe­ned to me and feel that the song has an es­pe­ci­al­ly sig­ni­fi­cant mes­sa­ge to me. I gu­ess I will ne­ver know for sure where that song came from, or if I just ima­gi­ned it. But it is com­for­ting to think that it may re­al­ly have been an­gels sin­ging.

We can trust that each of us has a gu­ar­di­an an­gel. The an­gel may so­me­ti­mes bring an im­por­tant mes­sa­ge to us or com­fort us in the mid­d­le of sor­row. Ha­ving seen an an­gel does not make any­bo­dy a bet­ter be­lie­ver, nor does ne­ver ha­ving seen an an­gel make any­bo­dy a wor­se be­lie­ver.

I have of­ten felt that a friend who has dis­cus­sed faith with me and has con­so­led me and pre­ac­hed my sins for­gi­ven has been an an­gel. The Bib­le al­so en­cou­ra­ges us: ”Do not for­get to show hos­pi­ta­li­ty to stran­gers, for by so doing some pe­op­le have shown hos­pi­ta­li­ty to an­gels wit­hout kno­wing it.” (Heb. 13:2).

Text: Vir­pi Mä­ki­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.