31 Days of Prayer: When God calls you to be somebody's angel

Around this time last year, I was in the Midwest, preparing to return to the East Coast. Yes, the song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" holds new meaning for me since then! But a few weeks prior to my departure, God taught me a lesson on agape love through an experience of a neighbor who we will refer to as "J".

Making a long story short: J was a helpful and kind person. So helpful and kind that when she saw a woman in distress one day, she went over to help. The woman (we'll call her R) had been ill and was trying to get to the hospital. But she never made it to her car-- she died with J by her side. Despite J's best efforts to help R to her car and get her to the hospital, it was too late, R who had been struggling a little while before J saw her struggling, died. J was traumatized to the point where she could no longer sleep through the night. When J shared her story with me, I told her I'd pray for God to give her peace and a good night's sleep. A few days after praying for her, I saw J around town and asked her if she slept well and she said she finally did. I praised God for answering prayer.

Now here's where the lesson begins: I never like ever win prizes from radio station give-a-ways but about a week or two prior to R's death, I'd been listening to K-LOVE and the DJs said they were giving away Mandisa's Christmas album which at the time I did not already own so of course I participated in this prize drawing and to my surprise, I won! I received the CD in the mail a few days after R's death and I remember thinking as I held the CD in my hands, "Now I know why I won." I wrapped the CD in Christmas holiday paper and gave it to J as her Christmas present. I also included a Christmas card and wrote a note to J encouraging her to listen to the song, "Somebody's Angel" because I believe God used her (J) to be like an angel to R as she breathed her last breath.

Here's the point: Sometimes as people say, you need "God with skin on" meaning that while you do love God and you do trust Him and pray to Him and faith that can move mountains, sometimes you need Him to send one of His people into your life to encourage you along your journey in person. Sometimes you need someone you can reach out and literally hug, someone who can have a physical presence in your life/someone you can see. Nobody can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). So I believe that God sends His angels in human form to us to help us when we are in need. I also believe sometimes, God will send one of us mere mortals to stand alongside another mere mortal when they are in need of support...Essentially we become like somebody's angel. No, we don't win wings or special powers because remember, we are mortals with finite minds! But I seriously think God uses us just like He uses His celestial angels to be a tangible representation of His love for humanity.

So this Christmas, I want to say a special prayer for you. I will not write it all out here, but I will let you know that I'm praying for you when I'm not using my computer. I'm praying for God to send people into your life who will be like an angel when you are in need. I am asking God to use those people to be like His angels to encourage you, help you, support you and keep you company as you journey through life. I'm praying for God's presence to comfort you. I'm praying for God's protection to surround you. And I'm praying for God's celestial angels to keep watch over you and that when given the opportunity from God to be like somebody's angel on Earth, you will take it.