Joan Wester Anderson: Angels act as messengers for God

I was once skeptical about that. I certainly could have used some heavenly helpers during the years I was raising my five children and attempting to carve a career as a magazine writer. But the possibility never occurred to me, not until our 21-year-old son and a buddy drove from Connecticut to Chicago for Christmas. It was the coldest week in area history that year, so dangerous that towns enacted curfews, closed highways and warned people to stay indoors.

Around midnight Dec. 23, the boys crossed the Indiana border. Soon afterward, their car engine died. They were stranded in minus-32 degree temperatures, in a field of frozen cornstalks, with no lights in the distance and nowhere to run.

I was home waiting for Tim to arrive. Through years of practice standing by a window, I had learned to pray in shorthand. This night, however, I sensed real danger, and I prayed specifically that God would "send someone" to care for the boys.

When they arrived safely the next morning, I learned the result of my plea. At that exact moment, headlights from a tow truck had suddenly appeared behind Tim's car bumper, there in the field. The driver had pulled them to safety, but when they got out of the car and turned to pay him, he was gone. No man, no truck, no footprints or vehicle tracks in the snow.

Although we later looked for the driver, according to Indiana authorities there were no rescue vehicles out that night, especially in that desolate area. I was left with the awesome prospect that the "someone" I had requested was an angel.

"I will send my angels to guard you in all your ways," God promised long ago (Psalm 91:11). And if he is unchanging, why should his assurances be different now?

In researching angels and telling Tim's account, I eventually collected thousands of similar stories, wrote several popular books and launched a Web site on these topics.

What are angels' roles in our lives? They do not take the place of God. He is our creator, the focus of our worship and praise. Nor are they the souls of the departed. Angels have never been human. We don't turn into angels when we die.

But as biblical accounts confirm, these spirits are sent to help us as we journey through our earthly lives. Most often, their aid is behind the scenes, perhaps a near miss in traffic or a sudden urge to get home now. (One mother acted upon that impulse and found her children trapped in a neighbor's abandoned refrigerator. She was just in time.) On other occasions, angels may be disguised as ordinary-looking people who just "happen" to be passing by, somehow get involved in the situation at hand, then vanish.

There are also times when, for whatever God's purpose, we see angels in all their splendor, as creatures of light. Children are apt to notice them and report "the shiny lady in my room" to adults, who most often dismiss such notions as imagination.

But adults, too, report these apparitions. An Episcopalian priest, while wondering if he should continue in his ministry, suddenly saw four massive winged beings floating gracefully on the domed ceiling of his church. He understood that he was being given a glimpse of paradise and that the angels were blessing his efforts and his congregation. Reenergized, he did not resign.

There are probably as many episodes of angelic assistance as there are people, for God makes them available to all. But I suspect we tend to miss them because we are distracted with our daily lives, our problems, our own arrangements. Next time you find yourself in a dilemma, why not ask an angel to lead you along the path God has chosen for you? It might become the most amazing journey you've ever taken.

Joan Wester Anderson is the author of the best-selling book Where Angels Walk. Visit her Web site at www.joanwanderson.com.