Angels -- For Real ??

I just finished rereading “It Must Have Been a Miracle” by Kelsey Tyler, a collection of true stories of everyday lives touched by a miracle. Many of the inspiring stories involve angels.
The bible is clear, not only about the reality of angels, but that they can on occasion appear in us in human form.
According to scripture, people have entertained angels without even being aware of it. (Heb. 13:20) Angels were sent to bring God’s messages to His people, as we see in several bible stories such as the angel appearing to Hagar ( Gen. 16) to tell her to return to Sarah , her mistress, or the story of shy Gideon , being told by an angel that he was called to save his people. And lest we think it was only Old Testament occurrences, we have New Testament stories of angels too, such as the angel coming to free Peter from prison. ( Act. 12:7-11)

I know meeting angels on our daily path is not a usual occurrence , nor are we to look for them or worship them , but I do believe that they are still on duty today and when called to do so can break through the physical laws that separate us from the spiritual world.

I can’t say that I have entertained angels personally --except for one experience that may have involved an angel … I will let you be the judge.

Beginning in May of 1997 I began to be troubled with attacks – a very sudden onset of severe heart attack-like chest pain sending me to emergency. The attacks were diagnosed as pericarditus and though the cause was unknown the doctors told me that pericarditus was a rare occurrence and even more rare to reoccur. But they continued to plague my life.

In July of 1998 I had an attack that landed me in emergency in a hospital close to where we were having bible study that night.
The emergency doctor on duty was Dr. Koo . I was glad she was a woman because I’m always more comfortable with women doctors. The nurses suggested morphine to manage the pain but she ordered Toridol intravenously, which thankfully worked.
When the pain had somewhat subsided , she was standing by my bedside and said, “I think what you have is Lupus, I will give you a note to give to your doctor.”
I felt drawn to her and I asked her if she was taking any new patients.
She smiled, averted her eyes and said, “Well, I’m not really from here.”

Later that week, I made an appointment with my family physician and gave her the note. She read it and said, “You don’t have Lupus.!” Then she stopped, reconsidered and said, “Well, let’s run the tests, anyway.” The tests came back positive.

I had in the meantime read up on Lupus.. because other than the word being familiar I did not know much about the disease. One thing I learned is that it is very difficult to diagnose and for most people it can be 5-10 years before they know what is wrong with them. I don’t like hospitals, and tests and all that goes with it, so I was very grateful to Dr. Koo for sparing me the journey.
Wanting to express my gratitude to her, I called the hospital to see if I could find out how to contact her. I was transferred to the hospital records department and I explained I had been in emergency , told the receptionist the date and told her I wished to get in touch with Dr. Koo the doctor on call that night. The lady was very friendly and said , “Oh , yes, of course, just let me look at our records.”
There was a moment of silence and then she said, “Uh.. can you call back in an hour?” Her voice sounded nervous and I thought maybe an emergency had distracted her. I agreed, of course, and hung up.
I called back in an hour and the same lady answered the phone. I barely had time to tell her my name when she interrupted me, her words tumbling over each other and her voice sounding strained. She spoke very quickly as if to convey to me that she wanted my call to be over.
She said, “Yes, Dr. Koo was in emergency that night.. but we have no idea where she came from and we have no idea where she went.”
I was stunned, as much by her admission as by the facts.

Was Dr. Koo a doctor in the flesh? Or an angel? I do not know , but I do know that God put her there at a specific time, for a specific purpose - to assure me that He was in control and that I could trust Him no matter what I was going through.

We all love to hear about God’s miraculous interventions , but have you ever noticed that they don’t come in the middle of a perfect day when everything is going according to plan?? God’s miracles always come in a time of need or hardship or in our most terrifying moments. I know none of us wish for ‘hard times’ but our comfort in them is to know that God is close.
He always knows what we need and He is willing and able to take us through the deepest trial.