“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14, NIV).

She is a sweet woman, never complaining about her disability, 86 years old and mostly confined to her home, where I was checking on her. She had a yapping toothless chihuahua, whom she had rescued and loved. “You can’t see my cat,” she said. “She hides when strangers come. I call her my angel cat. Last year, I was really down, sitting outside on the steps and praying in despair. This little kitten came from nowhere and placed its head in my lap under my hands. She’s been with me ever since. God sent her when I needed comfort.”

Has God ever sent you an angel cat?

I’m not a cat person, but God has certainly sent angels my way, sometimes for deliverance and sometimes for fun.

I remember the waiting room in the Lagos, Nigeria airport when my missionary family was traveling to the U.S. for health reasons. A young Nigerian boy approached me and offered, “For $10, I can get your family first class tickets back to the U.S.” Out of kindness we gave the boy $10, assuming we would not see him again. A few minutes later he returned with first class tickets for my poor missionary family, and then we never saw him again. I suspect he was an angel sent by God to care for us in a fun way.

I have mentioned before the time God sent an angel for direction and deliverance. We were struggling to decide whether to end our international missions career because of my wife’s illness. After much prayer over several months and much counseling, I was sitting in my backyard in Nigeria, in tears, uncertain of God’s will, when the roar of the wind through the rain forest palm trees made me raise my eyes. There came from the clouds a blonde young woman who settled in the sky above the trees, smiled at me and very clearly said, “Take her home.”

Angels are not God, but angels are not fairy tales. We should not worship them or hold them in awe, but we should be grateful God uses them as messengers and ministers to those of us who are limited by human flesh and seeking God’s will for our lives.

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11, NIV).

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2, ESV).

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is a desert place” (Acts 8:26, ESV).

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Matthew 26:53, ESV).

Thank you, dear God, that your angels are watching over me.

Amen