When I was a little girl, I was weird (Ok, so maybe not that much has changed), but I was REALLY weird. For instance, I wouldn't eat grapes off of the vine because I didn't want to take them away from their "families". Single grapes were fine. Grapes on the vine cluster were SO not fine. In my free time, I used to sit outside watching the heavens for Jesus to come out of the clouds. And one of my most vivid memories was of my nightly prayer to God that He would let me see a real live angel in my lifetime. With my literal eyes...not my daydream eyes and not in my (clearly) very overactive imagination's eyes. I wanted to see one like David saw one in the Bible.
Thirty-odd years later, my whimsical hopes and beliefs in such things fell somewhere by the wayside. At some point, not only did I reject the belief itself, but even the desire for it at all. Sad, I know.
Lucky for me, God has a funny way of dealing with this type of attitude. He not only let me see an angel, He pretty much surrounded me with them. Non-stop Angels. Real Live Angels.
This week is the week of my mother's birthday. Three years ago, my mom became my full time angel (I won't tell you all of the reasons that I know this - you will think I'm even crazier than you already do). She definitely believed in angels, so its fitting that she became one. She knew I believed in them. She knew I wanted to see one in my life, and I think she also knew I needed a revived belief in them.
As I think about her this week, and all of the ways that I've been surrounded by her love and the love of my grandmothers, grandfathers and all of the other angels that now fill my life, I am in awe. And tonight, I sat in a room full of real live angels. As true and real as the word "Angel" can be.
More to come on those angels later...for now, I'm just thankful that even a 35-ish cynical misplacer of beliefs can see angels not only with figurative eyes, but with literal ones, and that in those eyes the belief can truly be held that Angels DEFINITELY do exist. I have proof.
