An army of angels
A Christian Science perspective: God’s messages of love for us bring tangible blessings.
How to secure and maintain health and safety is one of the most important discussions of our time. Yet this topic isn’t new. The Bible provides us with significant teaching about how to meet life’s struggles through the power of God, giving us practical instruction in how to experience health and protection in our own lives.
One example is the story of Daniel, who was thrown into a den of lions as punishment for defying a law the king, Darius, had mandated – that anyone who prayed to a man or a god other than the king would be cast into a den of lions (see Daniel, Chapter 6).
Daniel knew from experience that his obedience and commitment to God would protect him. He found comfort and strength in knowing and trusting that he could never be outside the care of infinite God, and he took time each day to pray and to acknowledge that God was ever present.
When King Darius came to check on Daniel after his night in the den of lions, Daniel answered, “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me.” Daniel tangibly felt that God was present. The angels of God had revealed it to him.
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Monitor, helps explain the biblical symbolism of angels. It says that angels are “God’s thoughts passing to man,” and that these pure thoughts help to counteract evil (p. 581). These heavenly messages come straight from God to each of us and help us gain a better understanding of God’s creation – which includes all of us, God’s spiritual children – as exclusively good.
This improved or spiritualized thought actually brings God’s power into our lives in tangible and wonderful ways.
A few days before leaving on a business trip to England, a rash developed on my backside. The condition wasn’t painful, but it was rather distracting, and it flared up at night, which made sleeping difficult. By the time I arrived in England, I had not slept for three days.
I prayed to acknowledge that I could not be separated from God’s love. One idea I appreciated was this wonderful promise of safety from Psalms: “He [God] shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (91:11). This helped me see that as I acknowledged the presence of God, angel thoughts would lift me to a better understanding of the eternal harmony of God’s creation.
Within a day or so, the troublesome rash vanished almost entirely. However, I still found myself struggling to sleep at night, and it was becoming increasingly hard to function normally.
So I continued to pray. I thought of God’s wonderful promise in the Bible: “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13, Amplified Bible). This heavenly message literally began to transform my thought. It gave me a better understanding of the fact that my true identity was spiritual, and that God’s loving laws preserve life and health.
A quote from Science and Health captured my situation perfectly: “The footsteps of thought, rising above material standpoints, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; but the angels of His presence – the spiritual intuitions that tell us when ‘the night is far spent, the day is at hand’ – are our guardians in the gloom” (p. 174). There I was, a weary traveler having long and sleepless nights, but even during those dark hours, God was sending “the angels of His presence” to help me better understand my indestructible spiritual identity. Like a mother holding a young child in her arms, those angel thoughts were embracing me, giving me a greater sense of God’s infinite love; they were my “guardians in the gloom.”
From that point on, the healing was complete. The rash was gone, and I slept normally for the rest of the trip. Nor did I have any trouble adjusting my sleep schedule when I returned home to a different time zone.
No matter what situation we seem to be in, we can prayerfully listen for the army of angels God is forever sending to bless us.
This article was adapted from an article in the March 13, 2017, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.