the thing about angels

I think I made an entry earlier, talking about how much I loved Lorna Byrne's book "Message of Hope from the Angels". I talked about how reluctant I was to read it and how incredibly helpful it turned out to be. So, I had gone out (to amazon) to buy her earlier books and now I'm back to being totally skeptical about her stories. ... It's not that I completely resist the idea of guardian angels or angels in general....they are, after all, an accepted part of all major world religions....and if I believe in God, I suppose, it would be weird if I don't believe in angels ...which honestly, I didn't... except maybe our guardian angels and the arch angels...as they are so prominent in the stories throughout religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

But - let's forget about whether I truly believe or not...it's more about how it all works that I wonder about. Lorna Byrne's stories seem fantastical but when she lost me is when she talked about meeting God in his heavenly library as a child. Now, I could make this more digestible if I told myself that God (who cannot be ascribed any human attributes, in my opinion) just created an illusion for Lorna in order to be more accessible. Just as she is an incredibly accessible messenger for the masses, if she really were to be a messenger. Her language is very simple and she seems incredibly wholesome.

But, there I find the next problem. She only seems to see good. All she talks about are good (safe) people and everything works out for them as they touch base with her later in life. I want to know about the rest of the world. What about all the awful places, broken marriages, troubled people that don't miraculously change over a short period of time but maybe incrementally over many many years. Or, perhaps, we just all need to listen to the guidance of our guardian angels and we would be in a better place.

A few weeks ago, I was heading to the movies in the city. It was the afternoon and I parked my car 40 blocks away from the cinema, assuming there won't be any spots in that area of Manhattan at that time.
I was on one of my kids' push scooter, shooting down 2nd Avenue, when I passed a church. I checked my watch and it was too late to stop to have a brief moment of prayer and meditation. I'll go after the movies, I told myself.

On the way back up, I had totally forgotten about my plan, when I was cut off by a cab making a left turn on a red light, forcing me to stop in the middle of the cross walk. But it didn't just move past me, it literally just came to a halt in front of me. As I was  thinking how strangely this driver maneuvered his car, I looked up and noticed, on the corner across the street, the church I had planned to stop at. I took it as a sign and thanked whoever was responsible for reminding me. I went in to the empty church and had my quiet moment of prayer, gratitude, and desperation.

When I came out, I gave a homeless woman some money she didn't seem to care for and hopped back onto my scooter to continue my ride up. And, just as I was wondering if it really had been my guardian angel who sent the cab running the red light to remind me to pray, I suddenly noticed the words to the song that was playing on my i-pod:

An angel bending down
To whisper in your ear
You turn around but we're
Invisible


Song: Steve Earle - Invisible