Angels are here to guide us, guard us, warn us, comfort us, teach us or just to be a friend and companion.

They appear as other humans, as glorious flashes of light, as a soft and unseen touch or as that "still small voice" that often speaks to us in times of crisis.

As the following stories reveal, angels will do just about anything to help us live more joyful lives.

As death approaches, angels often come to comfort and reassure both the living and the dying.  Billy Graham believes that the role of comforter is one of their most important functions.  "An angel will be there to comfort us, to give us peace and joy even at that most critical hour," he wrote.

 

Medical miracles:

One astonishing account of this comforting power of angels appeared in Time magazine.  Atlanta filmmaker Melissa Deal Forth related the touching story about how an angel brought peace and serenity to her husband, Chris Deal, in the hours before he died from acute lymphocytic leukemia following months of torturous chemotherapy.

She said she had been sleeping beside her husband's hospital bed when she was awakened at 3 a.m. by an agitated nurse.  Chris's bed was empty, and he could not be found.  Despite his weakened condition, Chris had taken his cumbersome I.V. pole and vanished.

Melissa searched the hospital and found her husband sitting quietly in the chapel talking to a stranger.

When she expressed concern, Chris smiled and assured her he was fine.  The stranger, who remained quiet, was dressed in a flannel shirt, Levis and work boots, much like Chris wore before he got sick.

Melissa noticed that the man appeared to be ageless.  "No wrinkles.  Just this perfectly smooth and pale, white, white skin and ice-blue eyes.  I've never seen that color blue on any human before.  I'll never forget those eyes."  She went back to the room and when Chris returned, "He was lit up, just vibrant.  Smiling.....He didn't have the air of a terminally ill and very weak man anymore."  When she asked him who the stranger was, Chris replied:  "He was an angel.  My guardian angel."  Melissa said:  :All I had to do was look at him to know something supernatural had happened.  Chris told me that his prayers had been answered.  It wasn't a cure, it was the blessing of peace of mind."

Once the fear and pain had been removed, Chris died.

The same issue of Time carried another amazing story about an angel with an important message.

In 1977, Ann Cannady received word from her doctor that she had cancer of the uterus.  The news had a devastating impact on Ann and her husband, Gary, who had lost his first wife to the same type of cancer.

Gary did not believe he could go through the ordeal again of watching someone he loved be destroyed by such a terrible disease.  "We spent the next eight weeks scared and praying, praying and scared,"  Ann said.  "I kept begging God saying "Please, if I'm going to die, let me die quickly.  I don't want Gary to have to face this again."

Not long afterward, Ann was scheduled for surgery, although she was given no hope that it would stop the cancer.  Three days before she was supposed to go to the hospital, there was a knock at the front door, Gary opened it to find an unusual stranger standing there.  The man was tall, even taller than 6-foot-5-inch Gary.

"He was the blackest black I have ever seen," Ann related some years later, the wonderment still echoing in her voice.  "And his eyes were deep, deep azure blue."  The man introduced himself as Thomas, called Ann by name and calmly told her not to worry, that her cancer had vanished.  Ann was stunned by the news and the fact that the stranger even knew her name or the fact that she had cancer.

The man repeated his message that Ann no longer had cancer and quoted the Scripture found at Isaiah 53:5:..."And with is stripes we are healed."  When Ann, in her confusion, again demanded to know who he was, the man answered:  "I am Thomas.  I am sent by God."  With that, he held up his hand, palm facing her and leaned forward.  "I'm telling you, the heat coming from that hand was incredible." Ann insisted.  "Suddenly, I felt my legs go out from under me, and I fell to the floor.  "As I lay there, a strong while light, like one of those searchlights, traveled through  my body.  It started at my feet and worked its way up.

"I knew then, with every part of me....that something supernatural had happened."  Ann fainted.  When she awoke, Gary was leaning over he and the mysterious Thomas was gone.  She made her way to the telephone, called her doctor and told him the surgery wouldn't be necessary because her cancer was cured.  The doctor insisted that she come in for another biopsy.  When she awoke from the procedure, the doctor was standing at her bedside, a perplexed look on his face.

"I don't know what happened," he told her.  "But your test came back clean...you appear to be in the clear."  Later, the stunned doctor admitted that he had".....witnessed a miracle."

Angel lore is filled with countless stories of children and their special angels.  Perhaps it is their innocence that attracts the 'shining ones.'  Or, as some suggest, children haven't yet learned to disbelieve in angels.

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