It's easy to love the idea of angels, thinking perhaps of sweet winged beings or guardians or avengers or heralds. The truth is that angels are one of the countless gifts that God gives to each of us: spiritual intuitions that come directly from Him, which we have the ability to know and act on. In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy describes 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" (p. 581).

It is our right, our very nature, as God's image and likeness, to understand Him and what He has to tell us. Angels represent the myriad ways that God speaks to each of us—always in a manner that we can understand and use. Since we cannot step outside God's creation, it follows that we are never separate from His inspiration.

Because God is all-powerful and all-knowing, each of us is always in His thought. The job of perfectly maintaining all of creation is not too big for Him. And we, as essential to that creation, cannot go any place where we do not have full access to God. At all times He is giving us all the inspiration and guidance we could possibly need.

It can take practice, though, to be aware of and receptive to these spiritual inspirations. We may often be distracted, listening to and thinking about so many other things.

By way of analogy, consider this: I can step outside my home and chat with a friend. Our conversation is part of what I hear. But I can also hear traffic over on the highway, wind in the trees, a helicopter flying overhead, the distant roar of the surf, a bird call, people one house over. These sounds are all around me, but I don't always "hear" each of them. Whatever I specifically listen for temporarily draws my attention away from the other sounds.

What about God's voice—those angel messages I so want to hear? Just as I get to choose which sounds to pay attention to, so I also get to choose which ones I am listening to in my thought. Am I entertaining thoughts of sorrow, pain, anger, annoyance, envy, hopelessness, self-pity, helplessness? Or am I entertaining angels in my thinking? If I'm allowing negative thoughts to drown out God's pure and perfect voice, I can stop and consciously choose to listen to God. There may be times when this is challenging because fear or pain or anger seems powerful or all-consuming. But each time I turn to God, it becomes easier to turn to Him the next time. He is never too busy elsewhere, and each of us is important enough to deserve God's voice. Divine direction is not reserved for "special" people or "special" times.

In a world where materialism seems to be the norm and angels can seem an unlikely possibility, here are a few examples from my life that have proved to me the everyday power, presence, and practical reality of angels.

1. It was 2:00 a.m., and I was alone in a secluded house. I was awakened by someone pounding on the door. On the steps I saw a man with whom I was barely acquainted. (He worked in a store that I'd been to frequently.) He appeared to be drunk, he was covered with blood, and he was holding a gun.

2. I was on a Greyhound express bus. The next stop was several hours away. A young man began striding up and down the aisle, shouting, ranting, and occasionally smacking his fist into the ceiling. The air was thick with the fear of the other passengers—no one knew what to do, and his violence seemed on the verge of escalating.

3. I was driving home over a Cascade Mountain pass. There was solid traffic going both ways. Ahead on the roomy shoulder an athletic young man was riding his bicycle down the road at a fast clip, but not as fast as the cars. I decided to slow down until I had more room to go around him.

I view what happened next in each of these scenarios as proof of angels, God's thoughts always available to me.

In the first instance, with the man at my door, as I listened for God's voice, I knew without question that the appropriate thing was for me to invite him in and see how I could help—even though conventional wisdom may have suggested another reaction. It turned out he'd been in a bar fight and was tired of who he was, related mainly to the pointlessness of life "learned" during three tours in a war. He felt that suicide was his only option. He told me he was on his way to kill himself when he got the idea to stop and see me first. I was able to help by listening, giving him bandages, and offering him a meal.

In the second instance, on the bus, because I knew that Love is all-powerful, and fear and hate are nothing, I claimed that reality and put it into practice. With my eyes closed and my head resting against the window, I listened to God for direction instead of to the young man's rantings. I got off at the next stop just as he was being kicked off the bus. He came up to me and asked why I wasn't afraid of him. He told me he believed that making people fear him was the only way to be powerful, to be someone. That evolved into an interesting conversation in which I explained my conviction that Love is the only true power and a far more successful and satisfactory approach to human relations.

In many ways, the mountain experience is my favorite of the three, I decided to slow down with no conscious reasoning. In fact, from a logical standpoint, it would have seemed foolish, since the shoulder was plenty wide to accommodate the cyclist. But I was obedient to that direction, which to me was an angel message. And yet, at the moment I had slowed down, and, hence, everyone behind me had also slowed, the tire of the bicycle blew out. The rider tried to maintain control, but skidded out into the traffic lane. Because I was driving so slowly, I was able to stop and avoid hitting him.

I pulled off to wait with him for a few minutes until his friends arrived. His bike was totaled, but his only injury was a scraped leg. It was only as I drove off that I recognized what a wonderful instance of angel presence the experience had been for both of us. I was simply inspired to follow God's messages, and inevitably, harmony was manifested.

God's thoughts are always coming to us, are always a part of our thoughts, providing us with wisdom and harmony. We have the right to hear and be obedient to His angels, and to see the results in our present experience. Mrs. Eddy wrote of Jesus, "He was inspired by God, by Truth and Love, in all that he said and did" (Science and Health, p. 51). We can all aspire to this goal of perfect obedience and inspiration.

Spiritual intuitions are a normal part of every day. The more we practice listening for the "still small voice" of God, the easier it becomes to block out the noisy, but ultimately powerless, negative thoughts which would drown out this harmony. And I've learned it's not about aiming for human perfection. Rather, it's about seeking a growing understanding of our present spiritual perfection, which includes access to all spiritual intuition and inspiration. It is no exaggeration to say that we are constantly, joyously, and inevitably surrounded by legions of angels. css