Encountering Angels by Judith MacNutt

Author:Judith MacNutt [MacNutt, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012040, REL067010
ISBN: 9781441229656
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

6

The Presence of Angels at Death

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

When I was a small child traveling in the car with my parents, I would usually fall asleep in the backseat before we reached our destination. There was something about a moving car that always lulled me to sleep. Although my last memory of the day was happily looking out the window of the car, I would awaken in the morning safely tucked into my warm bed, carried there by my strong, loving father.

Writing this evokes the warm feelings of my dad’s protective care. He never left me alone in the car in the dark on a cold winter’s night. He would carry me to safety inside my home. I hope that dying will be similar to that experience, surrounded by the warmth and love of my family. I will go to sleep in peace and awaken in my forever home, carried there by God’s angels. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, his friend Horatio says, “Good night sweet prince: / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” In God’s plan, we are carried by His angels to our eternal home, where we are presented to Jesus and the hosts of heaven with exuberant joy and celebration.

Many people I have counseled still carry unresolved grief several years after their loss. They are still clinging to their departed husband, wife, child or parent. In some convoluted way of thinking, they believe their loved one can be kept alive if they hold on to the pain. God is prevented from filling that sorrowful space in their hearts because it is already filled with grief and pain. God desires to journey with us in the grieving process as we hand over our loved ones to His eternal care.

One of the common misconceptions about angels is that they appeared only to holy saints in biblical times, or to the mystics, or to extraordinary people like Joan of Arc. In our next story, an angel appears to a farmer’s wife in southwest Missouri to open her eyes to the spiritual realm. In Marilyn’s story, told to her by her mother, God sends not one but many angels to encourage her and others in their faith.

A Sweet Encouragement

One May I drove from my home in Kansas City to visit my parents at their farm in southwest Missouri. Following my recent divorce, I retreated there frequently. While I was sitting with them, my mother looked at my dad and said, “Should we tell her?”

Her words sent a chill down my spine. Had one of my parents been diagnosed with a fatal disease? My mom said matter-of-factly, “I saw an angel.” I was surprised. My family did not talk about spirits, angels or anything else that could be perceived as supernatural. The following account is from her diary:

Something very unusual happened to me this evening.

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