ANGELS IN OUR MIDST

I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries.
I wasn't hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 37 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories.
Rudy often came with me and almost every time he'd pretend to go off and look for something special.
I knew what he was up to. I'd always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands.
Rudy knew I loved yellow roses.
Now,with a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items andleave,but even grocery shopping was different since Rudy had passed on.
Shopping for one took time, a little more thought than it had for two.
Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how Rudy had loved his steak.
Suddenly a woman came beside me. She was blond, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit. I watched as she picked up a large pack of T-bones,dropped them in her basket, hesitated, and then put them back.
She turned to go and once again reached for the pack of steaks.
She saw me watching her and she smiled.
"My husband loves T-bones, but honestly, at these prices, I don't know."
I swallowed the emotion down my throat and met her pale blue eyes.
"My husband passed away eight days ago," I told her.
Glancing at the package in her hands, I fought to control the tremble in my voice.
"Buy him the steaks and cherish every moment you have together."
She shook her head and I saw the emotion in her eyes as she placed the package in her basket and wheeled away.
I turned and pushed my cart across the length of the store to the dairy products. There I stood, trying to decide which size milk I should buy.
A quart, I finally decided and moved on to the ice cream section near the front of the store.
If nothing else, I could always fix myself an ice cream cone.
I placed the ice cream in my cart and looked down the aisle toward the front.
I saw first the green suit, then recognized the pretty lady coming towards me. In her arms she carried a package. On her face was the brightest smile I had ever seen. I would swear a soft halo encircled her blond hair as she kept walking toward me, her eyes holding mine.
As she came closer, I saw what she held and tears began misting in my eyes.
"These are for you," she said and placed three beautiful long stemmed yellow roses in my arms.
"When you go through the line, they will know these are paid for."
She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek, then smiled again.
I wanted to tell her what she'd done, what the roses meant, but still unable to speak, I watched as she walked away as tears clouded my vision.
I looked down at the beautiful roses nestled in the green tissue wrapping and found it almost unreal.
How did she know?
Suddenly the answer seemed so clear.
I wasn't alone.
"Oh, Rudy, you haven't forgotten me, have you?" I whispered, with tears in my eyes.
He was still with me, and she was his angel.
Everyday be thankful for what you have and who you are.

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family.

The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room.
Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement.

As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it.
When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied...
"Things aren't always what they seem".

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor but very hospitable farmer and his wife.
After sharing what little food they had
the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest.

When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears.
Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.

The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel , " How could you have let this happen!
The first man had everything, yet you helped him," she accused.
" The second family had little but was willing to share everything and you let their cow die."

" Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied.
" When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall.
Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it.
Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife.
I gave her the cow instead.
" Things aren't always what they seem."

** Sometimes this is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way that you think they should, but , if you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage,even though you may not know it until some time later.
"The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered,and you no longer look at things as you used to; your desires are new, old things have lost their power." -- Oswald Chambers

A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study.
The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice.
The young man couldn't help but wonder,
"Does God still speak to people?"

After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message.
Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.
It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home.
Sitting in his car, he just began to pray,
"God.. If you still speak to people speak to me.
I will listen.
I will do my best to obey."

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought..
."Stop and buy a gallon of milk."
He shook his head and said out loud,
"God, is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home.

But, again the thought,
"Buy a gallon of milk."
The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God,
and how little Samuel ran to Eli.
"Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk."

It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience.
He could always use the milk.

He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.
As he passed Seventh street, he again felt the urge,
"Turn down that street."

This is crazy he thought
and drove on pass the intersection.
Again,he felt that he should turn down seventh street.
At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.
Half jokingly, he said out loud,
"Okay, God, I will."
He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop.

He pulled over to the curb and looked around.
He was in a semi- commercial area of town.
It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either.
The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.
Again, he sensed something,
"Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street."

The young man looked at the house.
It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.
He started to open the car door and then sat back in the car seat
"Lord, this is insane.
Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."
Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk.

Finally, he opened the car door,
"Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk.
If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay.
I want to be obedient.
I guess that will count for something....
but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."

He walked across the street and rang the bell.
He could hear some noise inside.
A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?"
Then the door opened before the young man could get away.

The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt.
He looked like he just got out of bed.
He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem to happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep.

"What is it?"
The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you."

The man took the milk and rushed down a hall way speaking loudly in Spanish.
Then, from down the hall, came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen.
The man was following her holding a baby.
The baby was crying.

The man had tears streaming down his face.
The man began speaking and half crying,
"We were just praying.
We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money.
We didn't have any milk for our baby.
I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."

His wife in the kitchen yelled out,
"I asked God to send an Angel with some..
Are you an Angel?"

The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him
and put in the man's hand.
He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.

He knew that God still answers prayers
and that God still speaks to His people.

I was so scared but I would not admit it, as I sat in the coffee shop across from the Mayo Clinic.
Tomorrow I would be a patient there, undergoing spinal surgery. The risk was high, but my faith was strong.
Just weeks before, I sat through my father's funeral. My guiding light had been sent back to heaven --
"O heavenly Father, in my time of trial, send me an angel."

As I looked up, preparing to leave, I saw an elderly lady walking very slowly to the register, I stood behind her, admiring her flair for fashion -- a bright paisley dress of red and purple, a scarf, a brooch and a brilliant scarlet hat. "Excuse me, madam, I just must say what a beautiful woman you are. You've made my day."

She clasped my hand and spoke these words: "My sweet child, bless you, for you see, I have an artificial arm and a plate in the other, and my leg is not my own. It takes me quite some time to get dressed. I try to do my best, but as years go by, people don't seem to think it matters.
You've made me feel so special today. may the Lord watch over and bless you, for you must be one of his little angels."
When she walked away from me that day, I uttered not a word, for she had touched my soul in such a way that she could only have been the angel.

In 1949, my father had just returned home from the war.
On every American highway you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking home to their families,as was the custom at that time in America.
Sadly, the thrill of my father's reunion with his family was soon overshadowed.
My grandmother became very ill and had to be hospitalized. It was her kidneys, and the doctors told my father that she needed a blood transfusion immediately, or she would not live through the night.
The problem was that Grandmother's blood type was AB negative, a very rare type even today, but even harder to get then because there were no blood banks or air flights to ship blood.
All the family members were typed,but not one member was a match.
The doctors gave the family no hope; my grandmother was dying.

My father left the hospital in tears to gather up all the family members,so that everyone would get a chance to tell Grandmother good-bye.
As my father was driving down the highway, he passed a soldier in uniform hitchhiking home to his family.
Deep in grief, my father had no inclination at that moment to do a good deed, yet it was almost as if something outside himself pulled him to a stop, and he waited as the stranger climbed into the car.
My father was too upset to even ask the soldier his name, but the soldier noticed my father's tears right away and inquired about them.
Through his tears, my father told this total stranger that his mother was lying in a hospital dying because the doctors had been unable to locate her blood type, AB negative, and if they did not locate her blood type before nightfall, she would surely die.
It got very quiet in the car.
Then this unidentified soldier extended his hand out to my father, palm up.
Resting in the palm of his hand were the dog tags from around his neck. The blood type on the tags was AB negative.
The soldier told my father to turn the car around and get him to the hospital.

My grandmother lived until 1996, 47 years later, and to this day no one in our family knows the soldier's name.
But my father has often wondered,was he a soldier or an angel in uniform?
Sometimes, we never know who God will bring into our lives to carry out a special mission nor do we know whose lives God will have us touch.
--Author Unknown