Original in Spanish

In the Bible, narratives abound about angels communicating with people who were receptive to their messages. Although the characteristics of these heavenly messengers differ, to each one is attributed a sheltering and protecting power.

For example, the Bible tells us that when Daniel survived being thrown into the den of lions, he said, "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths."

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to announce the birth of Christ Jesus. Angels served Jesus after the temptation. In Gethsemane before the crucifixion, "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke).

The need for shelter, strength, and protection certainly hasn't lessened since Bible times. And Christian Science shows how a deeper understanding of the nature and presence of God's angels can realistically guide and protect us today. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy speaks of angels as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality."

What protects us is a spiritual foundation, a life consecrated to good in conformity to Christ. It is wise not only to listen to but also to do what Christ Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount. This is to build our lives upon the rock, Truth, the surest protection against the winds of a turbulent world.

My trust in the spiritual intuitions that God was giving me constantly protected me during wartime. I remember how our house was protected when a bomb fell on our patio without exploding. Another time, when we were surprised by an air attack, I sought refuge in a shelter underground. But at the entrance I met an expectant mother who urged me to accompany her to another shelter farther on. I told her that we wouldn't succeed in getting there, because we could already hear the planes. But she insisted. Then I felt compassion for her and obeyed her.

When the bombardment was over and I left the hill, I couldn't even recognize the sector I had come from. The houses, the high buildings, the shelter, had all disappeared in rubble. I felt that I understood what the Psalmist meant when he wrote: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." My dwelling place was indeed safe, because it was with Spirit, God.

Compassion and obedience are qualities that protect and guard because they open our thought to God's direction and angel messages. Such spiritually based qualities are the messages of His presence. We find security, strength, and liberty in trusting totality of God's goodness.

PSALMS

As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

Psalms 55:16, 17