By Michael H. Brown

We receive many accounts of angels — boy do we receive them — and encourage you to keep them coming. Their consistency from disparate parts of the world and from readers who haven’t seen what others have written is astounding. It leaves no doubt to us that the supernatural is at work more than what our worldly society (and even worldly religious communities) recognize.

It’s incredible to realize how right Scripture is when it tells us not to neglect strangers, “for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it” [Hebrews 13:2].

Mostly it’s not a matter of “entertaining” them so much as benefiting from their often crucial assistance. We have received notes from readers who were rescued by angels from assaults, drowning, accidents, and even fire. Take the case of Karen Spruck from Hawthorne, New York, writes us about a time when she and her family were traveling the New York State Thruway when suddenly they were passed by two unusual men who were signaling to them. At the same time, all of the signals on their dashboard went haywire. The engine stopped. As it turns out, the van was blazing with fire.

The Sprucks piled out in a mad dash but to their horror they found themselves unable to get their five-year-old daughter out.

“The flames were coming out from under the van as I was trying to get out,” recounts Karen. “As I was struggling to get her out, the two men had stomped on the fire and were spraying fire extinguishers. They kept the fire under control while I finally got her out.

“There was a state fair in the area on this weekend so the fire engines came quickly. After I got my daughter out and after they had the fire out I didn’t see the first two men. I wanted to thank them because I hate to think of what would have happened if they hadn’t kept the fire under control.  When I asked the firemen where the two men with the fire extinguishers went, they said there had been no one else there.”

This is standard: the angels or angels (they often come as a team) seem to appear out of nowhere, disappear as suddenly as they came (though no one actually sees them disappear), and are most often described as having striking hair and unusually beautiful, even sparkling eyes.

In colder climes, there are snow stories. Women stuck in drifts. Or with cars that are stalled. Suddenly, a helper comes by — or even a plow truck!

This we get from Joann Farrell in Yorktown Heights, New York, who recounts the time her husband had just come out of heart surgery and her kids had moved to New York City, leaving her with sole snow-removal duties.

Neighbors helped, but one day, in March of 1996, it was just too much. A major storm. And out there in the driveway, trying to grapple with it, Joann broke down in tears.

“As I took a break, with tears running down my face, I was thinking that I will never be able to shovel out the mound the town plow had left across the bottom of the driveway,” she writes. “As I stood there looking at all I still had to do, I saw headlights coming from a few blocks away.  They turned up my road and as they came closer I could see it was a pickup truck with a plow on the front.  I thought to myself, ‘boy, someone is lucky to have that truck coming to them.’

"Well, that truck went past all the other houses and came right to my driveway and cleared snow that was blocking the whole bottom of my driveway! It then went up to the corner, came back down, and plowed more across the bottom.  I was so shocked I just stood leaning on my shovel looking at 'them.' There were two men in the truck, one with the "whitest" hair who was driving and one with stark black hair sitting in the passenger seat. When they finished clearing the bottom of the driveway, they backed up a little, both looked at me and smiled, waved, and then drove away. I never approached them or spoke to them, as I seemed to be rooted to my spot. As I watched them drive away, I noticed that the truck was solid white with no commercial writing on it. It was a strange truck as the back almost looked more like a boat than a truck. I had never seen that truck before, nor have I seen it since.  In the 27 years I have been a homeowner I have never had anyone come and plow my driveway out like that. I felt very peaceful, and an overwhelming feeling that I was not alone settled over me." 

In New York, Solange Arguello of Queens was waiting for a bus one dark evening when several men began to approach in a menacing manner. They had spotted her and then huddled in a dark lumber yard before making their threatening approach. She was terrified — knowing what was on their minds — and she was ready to throw herself into oncoming traffic, if necessary, to avoid the assault.

That’s when things got interesting. [scroll for more]:

“Somehow I was frozen in my  spot,” Solange writes. ” I was alone, it was dark, the lumber yard was only a few feet away from me. I wasn’t able to run, and the idea of escaping didn’t run through my mind either. When I saw that I had no where to run, I got very, very scared. They were coming closer and closer.

“Then, something caught my eye. I looked across the street to the other side. A tall young man, with shoulder length curly blond hair was in the middle of the avenue, heading towards the stop. His face was beautiful. He had a very strong forehead. As he walked, his hair bounced and somehow the light caught his shiny blond curls. As I said, it was night, and it was dark. But, at that distance, from the other side of the street, I could make out the color of his eyes. They were a shining, sparkling blue —  ice-blue, piercing eyes. He was very strong looking; determination was written all over his face. He had a serious look on his face, not angry just serious like when someone is on a mission.

“My heart jumped with joy and relief. I was not alone anymore. He came and stood right next to me. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t look my way. He was very tall, white complexion. It’s been about ten years since that happened and in my mind I can still see him crystal clear as if was yesterday.

“What I remember most of all are the sparkling, piercing blue eyes. They were like two stars in the night. And his beautiful, curly blond hair bouncing as he walked, framing his strong forehead. Handsome, but he did not inspire human attraction, rather, respect and awe because you could feel his strength, not physical but a strength that I cannot describe.

“When I looked in his direction while he crossed the street, I was captivated by him. It was if timed stopped, and I think my mouth was wide opened as I saw how he stepped hard and strong and manly, like he knew no fear. This happened in a matter of seconds. But I felt that I was in some time warp because even though it was dark and he was at a great distance from me, I could make out every detail of him. When the four or five men who were walking towards me looked in his direction, and saw what was coming towards them, they scattered like rats [back to the dark of the lumber yard].”

No one is going to convince the skeptics; these aren’t incidents that are proven by “objective” data. But after a while, the evidence, if circumstantial, is also overwhelming. Father Donald Guglielmi of St. Mark’s Church in Stratford, Connecticut, notes: “On April 11, 2003 I was driving home on I-91 South around noon in Connecticut in a heavy rain and heavy traffic. I was doing about 70 m.p.h. and was traveling in the far left lane.

“All of a sudden, my car tires hit a large pool of water and my car spun totally out of control. The car swerved into the middle lane and spun around two or three times. I could not control these movements and could see traffic heading towards me and all around me. I remember bracing myself for a collision — that never came. Instead, the car spun all the way over to the far right hand lane and hit the embankment, where it came to a dead stop, facing the same direction I had been driving in! I was shaken, but uninjured and there was not even a scratch on my car. It was then that I realized that I had been praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the time of this incident. Divine mercy was invoked and divine mercy was granted to me and to everyone else on the highway with me. I sensed immediately that the angels of God had intervened and prevented what could have easily been a fatal accident. There appears to be no other explanation since the highway was filled with speeding cars and the chance of spinning into the middle lanes without hitting another vehicle seemed impossible at the time.”

Except to God and His messengers, for whom all things are possible.

Feb 2004

[Bookstore resources: The Trumpet of Gabriel and Guardian Angels]