Angels

I was never really one to believe in angels. Well at least not the commercial “angels” that became a popular fad in the late 80\’s and early 90’s. If nothing else, I’m a realist. It seems that all of a sudden we were inundated with TV shows about “angels”.  I think it started with shows like “Charlie’s Angels” and from there it was “Touched by an Angel” and “Highway to Heaven”.  The latter two shows focusing on the power of spirit beings. Everywhere you turned it was angels this and angels that. Suddenly everybody had an angel story. Now don\’t misunderstand me, I do believe in angels mainly because I believe the Bible and clearly angels are spoken of in the Bible. But I guess I was always skeptical about people\’s “Angel” stories. Well, I guess the Lord knew that he was going to have to prove that one to me, and true to his character, he did just that…..thus, following is MY Angel story.

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The children and I were living in Brooklyn back in 1986. At that time the “children” included only Yamil and Maya. Maya was around two and some change and Yamil was four. We lived in a very modest house in East New York at the end of Sackman street. Across from us was a couple of old garages where on Saturdays guys would park their cars there and do that \”car washing male bonding\” kind of thing.  Aside from that, there was an open field. Our house was part of the Nehemiah homes project started by east Brooklyn churches back in the 80\’s. When the Nehemiah project launched, it sold houses to residents of East New York for as little as $39,000. The church-run program would buy abandoned, city-owned properties and erect inexpensive homes for residents that met the program’s strict financial credibility checks. These were a series of row houses. My house was a corner house which was nice because we had more yard space. I got involved in this housing project because of my mother who was, at that time, a member of St. Paul Community Baptist Church located in East New York Brooklyn. My mother was a real planner (I guess Maya got that gene) and was always looking down the road and preparing as best as she could for what would come.  She put my name on the list to try to pre-qualify for this affordable housing. With a little help, and a lot of prompting, we were able to qualify.  Although she didn\’t live long enough to see us actually move into the house, she knew that we had been accepted into the program. The house was very basic – living room, dining area, kitchen and half bath downstairs with two bedrooms upstairs with a full bath. It also had a basement. The children were able to play outside in the backyard during good weather. I had partially fenced in the yard for their safety.  In the summer we would put the water sprinkler on and they could go out back and play. My neighbors, “The Mayes”, were very kind and supportive often watching out for them if I was busy inside the house.  It’s amazing that we had carved out a safe haven, in the midst of one of the roughest neighborhoods during that time, where we actually felt safe and protected.  One night after dinner and baths I put the children to bed and settled down to enjoy a nice and quiet evening.  As I would so often do, I sat out back on the steps and talked with the Mayes. Undoubtedly, Mr. Maye would get tired early and retire to bed but Ann was a lot like me in that she was basically a night owl so it was nothing for us to sit outside until 12 midnight or sometimes even later.  The Mayes were an older couple who were like grandparents to my children.  They loved the children and me and clearly we loved them!!!!  Sometime during the early morning after our late night \”girls session\”, I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on the front door. It was still dark outside but there was just a hint of dawn breaking through letting me know that daylight was imminent. I ran downstairs and immediately saw that the back door was wide open.  My heart started beating overtime. I started calling for the children.  Yamil appeared immediately but Maya was missing.  When I opened the front door, there stood a young man (maybe he was in his late teens or early twenties). He was holding Maya and asked very calmly if she was my child.  I grabbed her from him, said thank you and closed the door.  I put her down and ran back to the door to talk to the young man but he had disappeared.  I didn’t see him anywhere.  There was nowhere for him to have gone that fast. I ran to the back door and looked out – still nothing, no one in sight.  The strange thing about the encounter was that he didn’t seem to fit in with the neighborhood.  He was neatly dressed in a nice pair of slacks, a regular shirt, nice shoes, hair cut – very professional looking.  His demeanor was very congenial.  There was no tension in his body, no aggression in his stance or his voice. He just merely smiled and handed her over and then disappeared.  Was he indeed an angel sent to protect my child? At first I thought I was dreaming except Yamil remembers this situation as well.  He started asking Maya where she had been and why was she outside. Apparently she had been sleep walking. That was the one and only time that she did that. She never walked in her sleep before that night and never once did she ever sleep walk again!!!!! For many nights afterwards I would put toys at the top of the stairs just in case she got up so that I would hear her – she never did!  That experience changed something in me.  It made me look at things in a different way.  Down through the years, I’ve often wondered what happened to that nice young man – MY ANGEL.

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Psalms 91:11 – For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Hebrews 1:14 – Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?