Do You Believe in Angels?

Some time ago I was invited to address a Ladies Circle at a church and decided to talk about angels. The first thing that I did was to question how many of those gathered there believed in the accuracy of the Bible, and not surprisingly almost every hand in the room went up. My next question was to ask how many believed in the reality of angels. Surprisingly, in view of the answer to the first question, only about a third of those present raised their hands, and some of those were very hesitant! Yet if you accept what the Bible teaches there is no option really, for angels are mentioned over and again in Scripture. There are some very significant mentions of course, such as the angel that appeared to Mary and the angel that appeared to the Shepherds, but also many more.

One of my favourite verses is found in the letter to the Hebrews in Chapter 13, verse 2:

'Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.' (NAS)

In Matthew Chapter 24, as Jesus addresses the disciples on the Mount of Olives, he speaks of angels:

' 30 ... Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and with great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.' (NAS)

I believe that angels are all around us, although generally speaking many of us don't realise it. Yet they are there, looking after us, protecting us and keeping us safe.

Here's a story told to me first-hand by the lady involved:

This lady worked on the stall next to mine when I was a market trader, many years ago, in Ludlow, Shropshire. She told me how she had been running a fashion shop in a small Shropshire village which suffered during a financial depression. Not only did the building house her shop but she lived there as well, so the forced closure of her business in order to pay her debts dealt her a double blow. She didn't want to leave the area, and yet once her shop was closed and the building sold, it appeared that she would have no choice as there was nothing to let in the area and she would not have sufficient funds left after the sale to buy a new property.

With only a week or so to go before she had to vacate the property, an elderly couple came into the shop one afternoon. They were certainly fish-out-of-water, for the shop had always catered for those with a taste for high fashion. They started to chat to her and during the conversation they asked her where she would be moving to live. Sensing that they might be sympathetic listeners and needing someone to share her troubles with, she explained that there were no properties available to let, and that it seemed she would be forced out of the area she loved so much. The couple listened to all she had to share and then told her that if she went to the local Landowner's Agent she would find that they had a cottage for rent on the Estate. So saying the couple left. A moment or two later she left the shop to go to see the Agent. The old couple were nowhere to be seen. She asked a coupe of people on the way if they had seen them, but nobody had.

Arriving at the Agents she said that she understood that there was a cottage come up to let and that she was interested in it. The Agent was surprised that she knew about it because, he explained, it had literally just been decided that very afternoon that this cottage would be let.

The happy ending to the story is that the lady secured a long lease and so was able to stay in the area. Finishing her story she turned to me and said, "I'm absolutely certain that the old couple were, in fact, angels, sent to help me at a time of need."

I tend to agree with her. What about you?

If you have any stories of angelic experience why not email them to me and maybe I can put them into my magazine.