Do you believe in angels?

Sometimes things happen that make you wonder.  Sometimes these things happen more than once, then you really sit up and take notice.  Most religions have some type of celestial guardian or helper beings, what we in Christianity and Islam call angels.  In the Middle Ages, there was a lot of speculation about what angels were, their nature, their characteristics, even to things like their size (this is where the query comes from--how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?--posed by Thomas Aquinas, a great medieval theologian in the Christian West).  If you are Christian or Muslim, you are taught some very specific things about angels.  Many Christian churches recognize guardian angels, an angel who looks out for you personally, a divine emissary, if you will, who works to keep you safe from harm.  There are even formal prayers that mention guardian angels in the Catholic faith.

But I must say, I have never met an angel that had wings, carried a harp, sat on a cloud or flew, all standard hackneyed imagery of the Christian angel.  But that is not to say that I have not met any angels.  Let me give you a some examples.

When I was 16, my father and I were going downtown to attend a show on a riverboat in the city where I grew up.  We were driving on the interstate returning home after dark.  For no particular reason, the road was not crowded, my father changed lanes.  Just seconds later, a large car came at us at a very high rate of speed, with no headlights around a blind turn, in the very lane we had been in just seconds before.  If we had not changed lanes when we did, I would probably not be here writing this blog today.  In fact, just this same thing, a sudden lane change and a few seconds later a car speeding the wrong direction in that lane has happened to me two more times in my life.  The last time it happened, I was so shaken by the experience, I had to pull off the highway and just sit for a few minutes.  I was shaking so badly, I couldn't keep driving.  I have no idea what caused those sudden and unexpected lane changes that saved me from certain serious injury and probable death.  Perhaps we humans just have heightened intuition and that was what was triggered in each instance and prevented serious injury of death.  There really is no way to know.

But there was another occasion, several years ago, when I believe I may have met a celestial agent.  I was walking through a rundown abandoned warehouse area in a neighboring town.  I needed to traverse this 2 block area to get from the bus station to the campus of a local university where I was taking a class.  I didn't really want to walk through this abandoned warehouse district, but I had no choice if I was going to get to class.  About halfway through this rough section, I realized that I was attracting attention and that there were several tough looking guys who were eying me.  I was afraid, there was no one on the street except for me and these guys.  There were all these abandoned warehouses and overgrown railroad tracks.  This was years before cell phones.  I had no idea what I was going to do to stay safe until I got out of this terrible section of town.  I walked past another abandoned warehouse and a door opened onto the sidewalk next to me and this tall and confident Black woman in her 30s stepped out onto the pavement and began walking with me.  She asked me how I was doing and we exchanged pleasantries for the block we had left to walk until we got out of that place.  Finally, I was back in civilization as we entered an upscale shopping district and I knew I was going to be okay, those guys that had been keeping an eye on me were not going to follow me into this part of town.  The woman had dropped back behind me at that point and, when I turned around to thank her for her company, she was no where to be seen.  There were no building entrances nearby and no cars she could have gotten into.  In just the blink of an eye, she was gone without a trace.  At that moment, I felt that I had been walking with an angel who had kept me safe while I most needed protection.  Maybe there are other explanations.  No one I have ever talked to about this has a similar story to share.  But just maybe, I was touched by an angel.