Last week tornados devastated the Midwest. It takes your breath away. “What is the most important question one can pose?” Einstein was asked. He answered: “Is the Universe a friendly place?” The question can be expressed another way: Is our present pessimism – even paranoia—realistic, justified? Certainly it seems so, doesn’t it? Terrible things happen. Tornados sweep away your house in seconds, tsunamis destroy whole landscapes, mudslides, earthquakes, fire, flood, disease, war, death leave us devastated. It is easy to fall into the slough of doubt and despair. Is the Universe a friendly place? How can a loving God allow such things? If God is omnipotent, all powerful– how can we experience such distress? If God is all-loving–? If God is–? Is God–? “What is going on?” we cry. They say that every time you frame the question, “WHY”— you are crying out to God.
Remember, we aren’t promised that nothing bad will happen in our lives, but that when they do we’re not alone. Angels, metaphorically and in person, are there to guide us, warm us, comfort, heal us. One evening my friend Margaret fell into conversation with a woman whom she didn’t know.
The woman told Margaret that for months and months her father, a determined agnostic, had been desperately ill. One morning he phoned his daughter to report that something extraordinary had happened the night before. He was still shaken by it.. In the middle of the night, he said, he was awakened by the overpowering scent of roses in the room. He opened his eyes, fully awake, and saw a young mother and her little girl standing in the corner of his bedroom. He did not know them. They smiled at him, lingered some moments, and disappeared, leaving behind them the strong scent of roses.
Speaking on the phone to his daughter he insisted that the aroma of roses was still noticeable, but more remarkable he felt stronger, better. The scent lingered for about twenty-four hours. Her father recovered from his devastating illness and was never the same, having had this brush with the Other World.
We have angels, cavalries of angels riding to our aid. All we have to do is ASK. We don’t even have to believe in angels or in God or in a spiritual dimension, but whenever our hearts cry out – ‘Oh help!’—it comes. Watch for it. Listen. Write down those moments when suddenly aid arrived, and remember that the more grateful you are, the more you will notice, for the more you give thanks the more you will receive. Gratitude is the doorway through which the angels dive.