Angels, Guides, and Guardians
by Sophy Burnham

What are angels? The word comes from the Greek meaning messenger. Angels come, therefore, in any way that the message can be received, in dreams and intuitions—the little tap on the shoulder that says “go there, don’t go there.” And everyone has had this experience: “I knew I should go down that road, and I didn’t listen!”

They come as accident and coincidence—the book that falls off the shelf open to a page offering you. . . pure gold. They come as animals, and sometimes they come as humans. A stranger will approach and say just what you needed to hear that moment… or you will act as an angel to someone, often without even knowing it.

The Question is, will you recognize them when they come?

One day I was talking about angels to a friend. He listened, skeptic that he was, and said he’d never met one. “But once,” he said “when I was a little boy I was alone in the house playing with my woodcarving set when the knife slipped and cut my finger to the bone.” Blood came spurting out. Just then the doorbell rang. He wrapped a towel around his finger and opened the door. There was a woman in a white uniform with a black bag. She came in, bandaged up his hand and went away. “I never thought about until this minute,” he said. “Was that an angel?”

And sometimes—rarely—angels come clothed in their own radiance and magnificence. When you see an angel, you are transported. They may be male or female, baby cherub or gigantic seraphim. They appear with wings or without (certainly they don’t need to flap their shoulders to move from place to place) They are spirits, formed of rippling light.

Here is the description of Pére Lamy, a French priest.

Their garments are white, but with an unearthly whiteness. I cannot describe it because it cannot be compared to earthly whiteness: it is much softer to the eye. These bright angels are enveloped in a light so different from ours that by comparison everything else seems dark. When you see a band of fifty you are lost in amazement. They seem clothed with golden plates, constantly moving, like so many suns.

The Bible has close to 360 references to angels. But it’s not the ones that came 3000 years ago that we want to know about—but the ones who come to us, today….

There are three marks of an angel, and everyone who sees one agrees on them:

• First they come as Light. Warmth. Home. Safety. Mother. You are washed with peace and joy.
• Secondly they always say the same thing. Don’t be afraid, they say. Fear not. They never say: “Look at the mess you’ve made now!”
• Third, you may not quite believe what happened, but neither can you forget.
• They have one other quality—these handmaidens of God: and that is light-heartedness. Lighten up, they say. Don’t take things so seriously.