The Christmas store windows were full of beautiful decorations—red and green and gold and blue, all glittering and sparkling. In the middle of one window Tanya saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was like a big paper doll, all white and gold, and it had feathered wings and was flying like a bird. It was beautiful, but Tanya couldn't understand why her friends called it an angel. She'd run home and ask her mother!

"Mom! Mom! Are there two kinds of angels?" called Tanya as she raced to the kitchen. Between gulps of milk and mouthfuls of cookies, Tanya told what she had seen in the store window.

"We learned in Christian Science Sunday School that angels are God's thoughts. But if what I saw was an angel, doesn't that make two kinds of angels?"

"Well, let's talk about your first kind of angel," said Mom. "Let's read what Mrs. Eddy says in our textbook." Together they opened Science and Health and Tanya eagerly traced with her finger as Mom read aloud the beginning of the definition: "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man." ^{Science and Health, p. 581;}

"Do you understand that, Tanya?"

The girl nodded. "Yesterday when you asked me to pick up the toys in my room before going outside to play, at first I was cross and said I didn't want to. But then I wasn't very happy; so I listened and then remembered that God's happy child is always obedient. Then I said, 'Okay, I'll pick them up.' That was an angel thought coming to me, wasn't it?"

"Right," said Mom. "That was an angel thought helping you to stay your usual happy and obedient self. God's angel thoughts are happy companions. We can think of them as good friends always helping us to do what is right, and when we listen to these good angel thoughts, we are always happy. Christ Jesus said that children have heavenly angels, wide-awake to their Father-Mother God." ^{See Matt. 18:10;}

"But what about the other kind of angel?" asked Tanya.

"You've seen the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, haven't you?" her mother said.

"Sure, the lady with the torch."

"Now, the statue is just a symbol that stands for liberty. Because liberty isn't a person. Just so, feather-winged angels are the way some artists many years ago pictured angels. But that didn't make them people with wings."

"Oh, I see," said Tanya happily. "The feathered angels are only make-believe angels. The real angels are God's thoughts that come and take care of you. It says so in Psalms: 'He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.'" ^{Ps. 91:11.}

Tanya smiled. "Mom, if angels are spiritual friends, then I can play tag with them, can't I? If I close my eyes very tight and listen for an angel thought, then I can catch it when it comes! Let's play a game of catching angels, Mom, right now."

So Tanya and her mother closed their eyes. They listened. And each caught some real angels, good spiritual thoughts expressing love and joy and truth.

The game lived on, and each night at bedtime after lights were out, Tanya and Mother played her game, filling their thoughts with the goodness of God. Sometimes the thoughts were about the birds and animals and how divine Love takes care of each one of its creatures. Sometimes thoughts came that brought love and peace, that showed how all of God's creatures live in harmony and brotherly love under God's care.

One day Tanya learned that her much-loved game was more than just a game. When she came in from play, she didn't feel like eating supper. She wanted only to lie down. This continued until bedtime, when she felt quite feverish. Tanya didn't even want to play her favorite game of catching angels. But Mother played it alone and voiced aloud the truths, or angel thoughts, God sent her. Then she asked Tanya to repeat first one familiar healing truth and then another with her.

In a few minutes Tanya suddenly said very brightly, "An angel thought just came to me, too."

Together they caught more angels, and soon Tanya was sitting up, eagerly playing her game again. She was so busy catching angels that there was no room for wrong thoughts of fever and weakness. She was well!

As a final good-night angel thought, Mother read the last part of what the textbook definition tells us angels do: "The inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality."

Their angels had chased away wrong thoughts of sickness. Tanya had caught the angel thoughts that brought goodness and health. Catching angels was fun!