Angels-aware
God is always communicating angels of inspiration to us – and an openness to this divine wisdom paves the way for healing, as a college basketball player experienced after sleeping poorly and feeling ill before a game.
“We all have angels watching over us all the time” was my spontaneous comment at the vehicle service desk. I had just been shown a picture of the worn wheel hub that had been discovered and replaced while my truck was in the shop for unrelated warranty work.
That damaged hub might have spelled big on-the-road trouble had it not been replaced. And to think I’d considered skipping the warranty work because of the hassle of leaving the truck at the shop. To me, the gentle mental nudge I’d felt encouraging me to bring the truck in was an “angel.” Glad I listened to it!
I like to think of angels as God’s representatives to humanity. While the Bible sometimes depicts them appearing as physical beings (see, for example, Genesis 19), the spiritual light that Christian Science sheds on the Bible reveals that angels’ real presentation is to our thought. In other words, angels are “God’s thoughts passing to man,” as “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, explains. These divine thoughts communicate to us the truth of our nature as His loved and cared-for children, which brings about needed healing and solutions.
No one is out of reach of these angels of inspiration. That’s because the true identity of each of us is the spiritual reflection of God, Spirit, who is infinite good and ever present. This relation between God and us as His reflection is constant and nonseverable. God is also the one divine Mind, so each of us reflects this Mind that communicates to all of us “angels of His presence,” as Science and Health describes them (pp. 174, 512).
We’re all inherently receptive to this divine inspiration. And the more consistent and heartfelt our prayerful listening is, the more fully we experience good in our lives. This listening is sometimes called praying, but it needn’t always be a formal action. Even though unspoken, the earnest desire to know and do right and good keeps us receptive to God’s angels.
In my college days, I was a regular on my school’s basketball team. One time, we had played a Friday night game and were to play again the following afternoon. The night was not restful for me, with seemingly unending tossing and turning. At get-up time I was feeling lousy and weak, so much so that I considered telling my coach that I wouldn’t be able to play much.
Then came a sudden, transformative angel thought: Length of repose time is no measure of our capabilities as the offspring of divine Spirit, Mind! As God’s children we’re spiritual, capable, and pure, not mortals subject to affliction. The fearful reluctance and feelings of illness were vanquished immediately. I was able to play untroubled, and rejoiced in the team’s success in what historically had been an unfavorable venue for our team.
Mrs. Eddy writes of God’s angels in many of her works. For instance, Science and Health defines “angels” in part as “the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality” (p. 581).
Isn’t that the inspiration we so desperately need and want to have, to heal and energize our daily lives? Each of us can pray, “Lord, give us angels,” and trust that He does – continuously. We can pray, “Help us to heed Your angels,” and trust that He is always helping us do that. In every instant, God, divine Love itself, is manifesting and communicating complete good to His children.