My Angel Story

 

Image created by the author using ChatGTP. The young women depicted do not resemble the persons mentioned in the story, but all else is spot on.

This is my own true story.

It was the end of the spring semester at the University of Washington. I was a flaky, insecure 20-year-old art student with an unimpressive GPA who had acquired a summer job in the cafeteria of the Safeco Insurance building. Despite my Catholic upbringing, I was an agnostic who was actively searching for God. The previous semester, I had taken World History. One of the requirements was to read “The Sermon on the Mount,” three chapters in the book of Matthew. It rocked my world. If there is anything to Christianity, I thought, this is how it should be.

From my Catholic education, I knew the story of St. Augustine, how he heard a child’s voice one day saying, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” A book was sitting next to him, so he picked it up and read Romans 13:13, admonishing him to change his profligate ways. It helped to convert him to Christianity, turning his life completely around.

After reading “The Sermon, ” I sat in my dorm room and mentally shouted, “St. Augustine, where are you now?” I cried a bit, knowing there’s no possible answer to our questions, then fell asleep from grief. I awoke with a dream that seemed for all the world to be an answer from the saint himself, but I scarcely dared to hope that it was real. In short, it was an invitation to become a Bible expositor in my future, but at the time, it was just incomprehensible and utterly improbable. By finals week, I had dismissed it.

Before the last exam in May, 1965, I found a part-time summer job in the cafeteria of the Safeco Insurance building in the U. district. A crazy Pentecostal lady who worked there full-time turned my life upside down by giving me a copy of The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. Although I was taking accelerated French during the summer and she had never graduated from High School, I began visiting her on weekends, taking the bus from the U. district to Ballard on Saturday, attending church on Sunday, and heading back Monday morning. Despite her poverty and her status as a divorced mother, she had a reputation for evangelism, preaching, and teaching those around her. She was intelligent, dynamic, and able to quote a thousand Bible verses, all in the KJV, of course. I listened to all the stories about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Despite my Catholic upbringing, nothing supernatural had ever happened to me…well, except maybe that dream. And, well, there was the crazy urge to quit smoking after I committed my life to Jesus. Oh, and the day I was rock climbing and got stuck on the wall and started whispering “Jesus” in panic. But at the time, I didn’t associate any of that with my new Christian experience.

One Saturday night, while visiting Darlene, I was lying in bed asking God how anything so weird and supernatural could ever happen to someone like me. By way of answer, I saw a vision in light just above my head. It was the Scripture “Luke 3:16.” I jumped up, turned on the light, grabbed my Bible, and read, “John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” So, after the Sunday night service, as I actually knelt at the metal chair in the church prayer room, surrounded by some ladies willing to ‘pray me through,’ I had that promise with me. I did pray in tongues. It didn’t feel supernatural or fiery like I hoped it would, but I accepted it by faith.

Darlene and I decided that it would be cool if I moved in with her so she could mentor me. We prayed all summer that my roommate Carol would come back from Olympia, WA, and tell me that she wanted to move out or something. I didn’t want to leave her holding the bag, having to pay the rent by herself. I didn’t want to be selfish.

Nothing happened all summer. Carol returned, and I had to face the music. One night, I wandered into the living room of our basement apartment. Carol was fast asleep in her bedroom. I got on my knees and prayed a prayer of dedication to God and told him that tomorrow morning I would tell Carol. I prayed that it would be alright and not a bad testimony. I didn’t want to be a stumbling block to her.

In the morning, I broke the news. Carol told me that during the night she had had a dream. She and I and an angel were standing in the living room. The angel was very tall, wearing a white robe with a rope sash. It wings. It was talking to Carol in a language she didn’t understand, but she knew exactly what was going on. She nodded, then she and the angel shook hands. The angel put his arm around my shoulder, and he and I went out the front door. Carol told me later that he was so tall he had to duck. So, when Carol awoke that morning, she knew that I would be leaving and that she had assented to it the night before.

How do I know that the entity I left with was really an angel and not just a spirit guide? Or a demon, or an alien, or Uncle Joe? Why do angels need wings, why wear white robes? I’ve never interviewed one, so I can only guess, but I suspect they have wings to show they don’t fly around in saucer-shaped vehicles that crash. It’s an iconic manifestation of an entity made of light, similar to the likeness of the Holy Spirit as a white dove. Interesting that we think of both angels and the Holy Spirit in terms of having wings.

As for white robes and all, that simply distinguishes them from other spiritual entities. Angels don’t have slanty black eyes or bald heads or one-piece space suits. They don’t claim to be from another star system. Beyond that, I imagine they just want to look angelic. Angels manifest as tall. Most aliens, especially the grey aliens, manifest as short.

The main thing to know about angels is that they unabashedly acknowledge the God of the Bible and the Son of God, Jesus Christ. They don’t allow us to worship them, nor do they suggest that the only divinity in the universe is what humans contrive. Aliens and spirit guides often tell their charges that there is no God, no heaven, no hell, no judgment. They say like attracts like, which often turns out to sound a bit like hell. There’s no life review unless you’re going to reincarnate.

Many positive NDEs are awash in love. The deceased person sees the Light Being, or they get a glimpse of the Happy Place, but there will still likely be a comprehensive life review. People return knowing that how they live their life matters.

Some see hell first. That gets one’s attention.

The day that the angel escorted me out the door in Carol’s dream was the beginning of many future adventures with God. And decades later, I did eventually accept St. Augustine’s invitation to be a Bible Expositor. I already had a BA in Fine Arts, but while my kids were still very young, I started on an 18-year educational quest resulting in a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a specialty in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.

My education did not in any way compromise or threaten my faith. My belief in miracles and the power of prayer is as strong as ever. If anything were to endanger my faith, it would be the unanswered questions that arose during the years I attended fundamentalist churches.

I thank God in heaven for the experiences I had in those wonderful churches, but they did not answer my questions about inconsistencies in the Bible.

This article was originally published in March, 2010. It has been updated. This story can also be seen at https://theologylighthouse.substack.com/p/my-angel-story and at https://medium.com/@janetkatherineapplebysmith/my-angel-story-1a6e3216da09?postPublishedType=repub.

Check out my website, www.janetksmithpersonal.com where you can read for free The Legacy: A Memoir of Personal Guidance and Korean War Sabotage.