Angel in the Night

Years ago, I lived with my grandmother in her basement.  In the summertime, Uncle Dale would gather excess junk wood from around the place to burn.  A hard worker, Dale was born with acute learning disabilities.  He is an unusual man, who learns by asking questions and watching others work.  He lived with Grandma, helping to care for her until she died.  Uncle Dale is amazing and I love him.

One long-ago evening, we built a fire out on the lip of the canyon.  We pulled big old logs next to the fire and sat, watching the flame grow brighter in the gathering darkness. 

That night the conversation turned to angels.  Dale told a fascinating story from his own childhood.  He was very young when he and his two younger siblings were left at home alone.  In those days they didn't have electricity and as the sun set and the air grew dark, Mom and their brother Lawrence became frightened.  The children huddled together beside the front window, waiting and watching for their parents' return.

But Uncle Dale wasn't afraid.  He told me he wasn't fearful, because there was an angel watching over them from a nearby tree.

I asked him what the angel looked like.  Uncle Dale's description was amazingly detailed.  The robes the angel wore were made of light.  You couldn't see the angel's feet, because beams of that rainbowy light scudded down the tree to ripple across the ground. The angel held a shining sword and he smiled down at Dale as though to say everything would be alright.  Curiously he says when he told his younger siblings not to be afraid, the fear which had surrounded them vanished.

I believe sometimes God allows children to see past the fabric of our everyday world, into  supernatural events, which adults often disbelieve, or ignore.

I am so grateful for Dale's story.  I often wonder how many times we have been protected by God's angels and did not know it.  Perhaps that sense of peace and safety as we travel down the freeway comes because His angels are watching over us.

This isn't the first angel Uncle Dale saw as a child--but that is another Angel Story for another day.