“Do You Believe in Angels?”
I was eating dinner at Marie Callender’s with my parents, a few years ago, when I asked them “do you believe in Angels?” I expected their affirmative “Oh yes, of course.” But then I pushed the issue and asked if they believed Angels were visibly active today. That is, did Angels ever come into someone's life in a tangible or visible way? Then I inquired if either of them had ever had an Angel experience.
Both agreed that Angels are not visibly active today, and that neither of them had ever had the personal help, or an encounter, with one. Then something strange happened.
On the heels of her vehement denial of Angel appearances Mother went into a story of something that had happened to her 65 years earlier when she was at Calvin College. She started into the anecdote with no referennce to the topic on the table-Angels. Here is what she said:
She was walking home alone from choir practice, that night. This walk took her through a dark and uncertain neighborhood and then through a rather large tree-shrouded city park. She was scared, she said, as she left the campus. To her surprise, shortly after getting onto the sidewalk, a large German Shepherd dog came up and began to walk at her side. A country girl, she had no fear of dogs and they walked quietly side by side all the way to the house where she was rooming. When they arrived she went in bidding her canine friend goodbye.
She said she looked back from the enclosed porch but he was gone, and that was the end of that companionship.
All this time I was still thinking about angels, so I quickly inquired if she thought the dog might have been an angel sent to care for her. “Oh no”, she replied, “ it was just a dog who happened to show up.”
I thought it was strange that it was the subject of Angels I’d introduced earlier that had resurrected that story from her memory bank. But consciously Mother denied any connection or belief that she had had an Angel take care of her.
Our unconscious is a reservoir of precious treasures. I think it whispered to Mom "speaking of Angels, remember that German Shepherd?" But all she heard was the last four words.
I was eating dinner at Marie Callender’s with my parents, a few years ago, when I asked them “do you believe in Angels?” I expected their affirmative “Oh yes, of course.” But then I pushed the issue and asked if they believed Angels were visibly active today. That is, did Angels ever come into someone's life in a tangible or visible way? Then I inquired if either of them had ever had an Angel experience.
Both agreed that Angels are not visibly active today, and that neither of them had ever had the personal help, or an encounter, with one. Then something strange happened.
On the heels of her vehement denial of Angel appearances Mother went into a story of something that had happened to her 65 years earlier when she was at Calvin College. She started into the anecdote with no referennce to the topic on the table-Angels. Here is what she said:
She was walking home alone from choir practice, that night. This walk took her through a dark and uncertain neighborhood and then through a rather large tree-shrouded city park. She was scared, she said, as she left the campus. To her surprise, shortly after getting onto the sidewalk, a large German Shepherd dog came up and began to walk at her side. A country girl, she had no fear of dogs and they walked quietly side by side all the way to the house where she was rooming. When they arrived she went in bidding her canine friend goodbye.
She said she looked back from the enclosed porch but he was gone, and that was the end of that companionship.
All this time I was still thinking about angels, so I quickly inquired if she thought the dog might have been an angel sent to care for her. “Oh no”, she replied, “ it was just a dog who happened to show up.”
I thought it was strange that it was the subject of Angels I’d introduced earlier that had resurrected that story from her memory bank. But consciously Mother denied any connection or belief that she had had an Angel take care of her.
Our unconscious is a reservoir of precious treasures. I think it whispered to Mom "speaking of Angels, remember that German Shepherd?" But all she heard was the last four words.
Perceptive observation of how minds rationalize spiritual encounters. Profound from one perspective, trivial in another.
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