Angels on Assignment
Jim Croft
Hebrews 1:14 "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"
Hebrews 13:2 "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."
Mankind and angels are beings of separate, distinct species. Angels were created in heaven in an age before the world was formed. They have celestial bodies that are superior in strength to humans. (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Pet. 2:11) The only angels that have wings are the cherubim and seraphim. The cherubs will have two or four and seraphim have six. (1 Kings 6:27; Ezek. 1:6; 10:14; Isa. 6:1-3)
Angels, cherubim, and seraphim are all majestic in appearance and are often frightening. When angels appeared to biblical characters, it was not uncommon for them to encourage them not to be fearful. (Luke 1:13, 30) Angels have a number of functions on behalf of the Kingdom of God and for the good of mankind.
Some continually minister to members of the Godhead with adulations of praise. Others serve as emissaries to deliver specific messages from God to individuals. The majority of the time they minister aspects of God’s mercy to saints and sinners alike.
A common function for angels is to orchestrate situations to coincide the paths of the unconverted with Christians who can direct them to the Cross. When they assist in these matters, they either remain invisible or take on the appearance of mere mortals. My parents and sister, Prudence and I, and our four daughters have encountered angels on numerous occasions.
Angel Balances Car
When I was age 9 and my sister was 5, our family took a trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway of the Smokey Mountains. The weather turned bad and the roads became icy. As we rounded a sharp bend, our 1951 Chrysler skidded off of the road and crashed through its stone guard rail.
We were all dazed. When my father came to his senses, he realized that two-thirds of the car was hanging over a three hundred foot precipice.
He commanded all of us to remain perfectly still until help came. My little sister, Candace, said, “Daddy, I see a big man sitting on the back of our car.”
My father slowly turned around and said, “I don’t see anyone. Are you sure?” Her response was that he was still there. My mother and father spoke at the same time. “It must be the angel of the Lord.”
My parents climbed into the backseat and opened the door that was closest to flat ground. My father got out first and then lifted us all to safety. Shortly afterward, a farmer came along in his truck and pulled the car back onto the road with a chain. Then my sister exclaimed, “The man just jumped off the back of the car!” The kind farmer towed our car to the next village for repairs, and my parents led us all in thanksgiving to God for sending His angel to help us.
The Extra Button
While my parents were living in Atlanta, GA, they had a beautiful home in the Club Drive area. It had a sewing room that was set apart for my mother’s passion for sewing. One of my father’s favorite sport jackets was purchased in Europe. It had leather patches on the sleeves and intricately woven leather buttons.
My father had lost one of the buttons. Mom and Dad searched the house and car and could not find it. My mother uttered a prayer, “Lord, send one of your angels to help me find that button”. Several days later as she passed through the sewing room and saw the button sitting on top of her sewing machine.
She thanked the Lord and then sewed the button back onto the jacket. Later she rationalized that she must have forgotten about putting the button on the sewing machine. Apparently, she was having second thoughts about presuming that God would send an angel to locate anything as insignificant as a button.
Later that day she had to run some errands. As she got into her car, she saw a button on the armrest of her Cadillac. It was identical to the one she had just sewn onto my father’s sports jacket. Apparently, our God who keeps track of the number of hairs on our heads is also interested in the mundane matters of our lives.
Glue stick
Prudence frequently helps people with her interior decorating skills. She designed and constructed a built-in couch for one of her clients. When adding the piping around the edges of the couch she saw that she didn’t have enough glue sticks for her glue gun. As usual she prayed about the matter. She asked the Lord to either stretch her supply of glue within the gun or to send an angel to fetch more glue sticks for her.
Three-quarters through the piping the gun ran out of glue. She checked her tool bag and looked for one that she might have missed and found none. She was preparing to leave to purchase some more sticks and laid the piping down at the end of the couch.
When she did so, she saw a glue stick sitting on the floor. She knew that an angel had put it there, as she had not previously done anything on that end of the couch. She giggled with delight, “Thank you, Mr. Angel.”
You have an Appointment
My father served under General George S. Patton in World War II. As his company was advancing, they routed the Germans from a village in Luxembourg. My Dad’s company took some much-needed R & R after liberating the town. The only person who spoke English was a 14-year-old girl by the name Andrea. She became his interpreter and my father appointed her as the honorary mayor of the city.
Fifty years later my parents made one of their frequent trips to Europe. Their purpose this time was to make a trek through the various cities that my father had liberated. At about 2:00 PM one afternoon they arrived in Andrea’s city. Dad located the family restaurant that Andrea’s parents had owned.
He knocked on the front door and there was no answer. He then went to the back door and knocked. Still there was no response. As he started to walk down the path back to his car, he heard a voice saying, “Captain”.
When he turned around, he saw a 64-year-old woman that he recognized as Mayor Andrea. She said that she had recognized him by his distinct walking gait. It was more-less like a John Wayne swagger
Andrea took my parents to her home and introduced them to her husband. They shared a meal and spent the afternoon in reminiscent small talk. As evening came my Dad led the conversation into spiritual matters. Andrea accepted Jesus as her Savior and Lord.
When it came time for the two couples to part, Andrea’s husband fell into my father’s arms and wept deeply. Then they related the following story. Earlier that day they had been visiting the home of friends who lived about fifty kilometers away in a remote farm area. Andrea and her husband were childless, so no one was informed about their plans of the day’s excursion.
Curiously, a man came to the farm house door and asked to speak with Andrea and her husband. Neither of them knew the man.
He said to them, “You have an appointment at your restaurant today at 2:00 PM. You cannot afford to miss it.” A peculiarity was that there were no cars parked along the road which inferred that he had not come by car.
After delivering the message, he turned and walked away and disappeared from sight. There is no doubt that he was an angel of God that had been sent by the Father to see to it that Andrea would be in the right place at the right time to hear the message of salvation.
A Bible for Narumi
Our third daughter, Holly, was married in August of 1997. One of the wedding guests was a young Japanese woman from Tokyo, Japan. Her name is Narumi Kanazawa. At Christmas time of that year, Narumi requested that we extend an invitation for her to travel from Japan to spend the holidays in our home.
We were delighted to have her, and she began to call us her American Mommy and Daddy. She attended a New Year’s Eve party with Holly and her husband, Chris. During the party, she began to ask questions about Prudence and me.
She expressed that we had something special that she would like to have. Holly told her that we were Christians and that Jesus had brought great peace and many blessings to our lives. Her response was, “I want that to.”
Holly telephoned our oldest daughter, Kari who led Narumi through repentance from sin and a confession that Jesus was God’s Son that He raised from the dead. Prudence and I wept for joy when the girls called us and told us of Narumi’s salvation.
The following morning I awoke with the plan of locating a store to buy Narumi a Japanese Bible. When I went into my office, I picked up a magazine from my shelf and there was a Bible under it. What a wonder, a brand new Bible in the Japanese language. I had never seen it before. Surely one of God’s majestic angels put it there just for her.
Later on, Narumi’s employment as a high fashion photographer led her to relocate to NYC in the following December. She dated a young man there and expressed disappointment that he had not invited her to his family’s home for Christmas.
The fellow defended himself by saying that he thought that as Japanese that she would be Buddhist with no interests in Christian celebrations. Narumi’s response makes me smile to this day.
"I’ll have you know that I’m not Buddhist. I am a born-again Christian and a holy angel of God delivered a Japanese Bible for me to my America Daddy. So there, Mr. Smarty Pants." Narumi parted company with the rude guy and is now happily married with children.
God, do what Holly said
Our daughter Holly’s husband is Chris Van Buren. My father led him to the Lord shortly after they were married. Before coming to Christ, he was a decent man, but had little understanding of spiritual matters. He is continually amazed by the things God does.
He is a cabinetmaker by trade. Recently, he was building a cabinet from driftwood for a client. He had purchased some antique hinges for it at a flea market. He found that after installing one of the hinges that the other was missing. He looked all over the shop and could not find it.
He called Holly and she came and helped him clear everything from the garage in hopes of finding the hinge. The baby began to fuss, so Holly had to abandon the search. As she walked into the house, she said, “Lord, send one of your angels to help Chris find that hinge.”
Chris made another thorough inspection of the entire garage, including the cabinet that needed the hinge. The search yielded no results. In exasperation he said, “God, do what Holly said.” When he turned around, his gaze fell on the cabinet shelf that needed the hinge. The missing hinge was sitting on the shelf that was directly in line with the place on the cabinet’s door where it was to be installed.
Help’s on the Way
Debbie has dated Prudence’s brother, Tim for the past 20 years. Their relationship is not platonic. On a cold snowy day, she went down the basement stairs of her parent’s house to fetch something. There was not anyone else at home. She stumbled early in the descent. She was knocked out when her cheek slammed onto the concrete pavement of the basement.
She came to and found that she was seriously injured and could hardly move. Debbie had numerous broken bones including her jaw and was bleeding profusely. She painfully crawled up the stairs and knocked the phone of its hook with a foot. She had two broken arms and could not dial the phone or speak. She hit 911 with her tongue and then passed out.
Later she gained consciousness and decided to crawl out the front door onto the walk, so that the ambulance would be sure to see her. She laid there for a long while. It was bitter cold and she feared freezing to death, so she made the decision to crawl back into the enclosed porch.
Out of nowhere, a man of about 80-years-of-age appeared right beside her. He knelt and whispered in her ear not to be fearful as help was on the way and then he disappeared.
Debbie spent months recuperating in the hospital. During that time she made inquiries by phone and newspaper notices to locate the old man who had spoken to her. She lives in a small rural town and nobody came forth who had a clue about the man’s identity.
When Debbie told us this story, it proved an undisputable fact: Our God is the Father of Mercies. Every day, all over the world, he sends his holy angles to minister comfort to people who are living less than godly Christian lives.
You Too
I encourage you to imitate my family’s practice of calling on the Lord to send his angels to assist you in your daily life. The situation does not have to be a monumental emergency. Whatever is helpful to you is of importance to God.
Jim Croft jcm888@comcast.net
Love For His People Editor's Note: Angel photo below added by me. We have this statue in our home. I like the looks of it.
Steve Martin
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