The ‘oomph’ behind God’s angels

Angels figure prominently in the Bible. In both the Old and New Testaments we find these representatives of God—thoughts from God that represent His nature and the nature of His spiritual creation—comforting the sorrowing, strengthening the weak, directing the wanderer, protecting the endangered, uplifting the downtrodden, and inspiring hope and healing! 

It was an angel that strengthened Daniel when he’d just said, “There remained no strength in me” (Daniel 10:8). Angels were sent to Jacob when he had to leave home (see Genesis 28:12). And an angel went before and behind the children of Israel in the wilderness, guiding and protecting them (see Exodus 14:19).

God’s angels are just as present, important, prescient, and powerful today as they were then. “The Lord will command his angels to take good care of you,” the Scriptures assure us (Psalms 91:11, New International Reader’s Version).

God’s thoughts had shown me the real me—His spiritual expression.

In paintings, angels are often depicted as cherubs with feathery wings. But what are angels really? The founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, defines angels as “God’s thoughts passing to man; …” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 581). I love that! Not God’s thoughts trying to pass to man, but can’t quite reach. Not God’s thoughts passing to man, but man not able to hear or understand them. But God’s thoughts—His messages (the very ones we need) of love that comfort, strengthen, guide, and guard—communicating directly to us and revealing us as always at-one with divine Love, wherever we are. When we cling to them as those people in the Bible did, hugging and holding them, they bring out God’s good purpose in us.  

These God-representatives are wing-ed, not with feathers, but “with Truth and Love, no matter what their individualism may be” (Science and Health, p. 298). To Jacob, angels were “ascending and descending” on God’s ladder, so to speak. To me, that says His thoughts not only were there for Jacob to receive, but they also lifted his thought to know God.

When Elijah was isolated, despairing, wanting to end his life, God’s angel came twice as a spiritual intuition, awakening him and saying, “Arise and eat” (I Kings 19:5, 7). 

In the New Testament, Peter was aroused from sleep in prison by an angel that appeared with a shining light and led him to freedom (see Acts 12:7–11).

A father I know received a God-thought through his four-year-old daughter, Melanie. He was in bed with severe flu symptoms, unable to go to work. Melanie, who’d begun attending a Christian Science Sunday School, kissed his cheek and said, “Daddy, you can’t be sick. God is causing you, and He’s good.” “How do you know that?” her father asked. Her answer—“God told me.” Minutes later he was well and went to work. 

In my own experience, I’ve been amazed at the unusual individuality of angels that have come right when and where I needed them. I’ve also learned the importance of receiving His thoughts, letting them speak directly and specifically to me—hearing, holding, and heeding them.

Healing is the law of God’s allness in action, and it’s ever present and ever active.

One time, my whole attitude was gradually darkening—instead of joyful, heavy; instead of buoyant, bothered; instead of calm, anxious. How I wanted to again feel expectant of good; to feel happy, unburdened, free. Then I saw a sign in front of a trendy bar. “Attitude Adjustment Hour,” it read (instead of the usual “Happy Hour”). Well, of course, alcohol served in a bar can’t produce a helpful attitude adjustment. But I smiled and paused—the phrase became an angel message reminding me that in two hours there would be a testimony meeting at the Church of Christ, Scientist, nearby. That was the “attitude adjustment hour” I needed. And I made sure I was there in person. 

The readings were on man’s relation to God, and before long, I was buoyant and joyous again. More than merely a better attitude, I felt a spiritual altitude of thought. God’s thoughts had shown me the real me—His spiritual expression.

Another message from God came, surprisingly, from the lips of a medical doctor. An aggressive skin condition was spreading over our kindergarten son’s body. I was praying diligently with the help of a Christian Science practitioner when I received a memo from the school principal, requiring a note from a physician stating that this condition was not contagious.

The pediatrician knew I was a Christian Scientist, and he asked me, “Why aren’t you letting Christian Science heal this?” He was serious, not facetious. That word letting was key to me; that’s what made it an angel. You see, I’d been trying to make Christian Science heal through my own efforts as if God’s work were dependent on my understanding, which felt a bit wobbly. 

Now I saw that this healing and my growing understanding of God were His work, both dependent on one and the same thing—God’s great love. Healing is the law of God’s allness in action, and it’s ever present and ever active to heal all who turn to it. I could let go of thinking God was dependent on me, and turn wholly to Him. I thanked the doctor and assured him that’s what I was doing. He gave me a note verifying that my son was free of contagion. 

I went home “flying high,” inspired and ready to trust God completely. That weekend no one noticed or said anything about the skin problem. On Monday night, while our son was taking a bath, he called from the bathroom, “Hey, that rash (as he called it) is all gone.” It never returned.

Mrs. Eddy noted: “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Science and Health, p. 574). That’s what happened with our son’s healing, and it can happen for you, too. Listen for His angels. Hear them; heed them. They’re straight from God to you and will speak with authority and tenderness. They will guide, guard, strengthen, and comfort you. The “oomph” behind each one is God’s omnipotence.