Angels exist

Angels really exist. I saw them this week. They might not have looked like you think. I didn't see wings and they weren't flying on a cloud. They didn't hold a harp either and there was no host of angelic voices. The first sound they made was just “ding-dong”.

So they didn't suddenly fly in either. They did suddenly ring the doorbell and get straight to the point. They looked more like neat businessmen, neatly dressed in suits with white shirts and ties. One was bald and wore glasses, the other adorned himself with a nice West Flemish accent.

They came at a time when I needed them, when I had prayed for support. Two days earlier I had been told that my grandfather was dying. He has been bedridden for several years after his stroke and is lovingly cared for at home by my grandmother.

The news still hit hard and comes just in a period where I feel a bit down. Many problems at once and so my resistance was also cracking lately. At such moments, like many others I think, I have sometimes looked up and said "is it enough now?". I know and believe with all my heart that we all have to deal with our setbacks with the intention of learning from them, but there are moments when it just seems enough.

It is at those moments that your faith cracks. It is then like a tree in a storm. It can break under the beating wind or it emerges strengthened, stronger than ever for the next storm.

I felt alone anyway. Due to circumstances, I hadn't been able to go to church in my own neighborhood for a long time, and precisely because I felt alone, I felt a slight reproach emerge that although I had often been there for others, that  men apparently it wasn't there for me now. Out of sight, out of mind, it seemed.

I had been to the temple that day I met the angels. Precisely because I felt so abandoned, I wanted to be as close to God as possible. Instead of blaming Him, I simply asked Him not to leave me alone. I confessed to Him that despite the fact that I always wanted to pretend to be great, I was now just someone who needed support from someone else.

You often have to learn to be patient before you get an answer to a prayer. But not this day. You've only just gotten home and the bell rings and two angels are standing at your door. OK, so they also looked like men-in-black and others might say so  Ordinary my bishop and his counselor were, but to me they were angels.

Angels sent by Heavenly Father. They didn't even know why, but they knew they had to come with a message: that I had not been forgotten. That I could continue to count on them. That they loved and supported me. That they were there to give me a blessing.

That evening is one of my most spiritual experiences to date. I'm a down-to-earth kind of Mormon. Others feel the Spirit at the slightest thing and are moved to tears, or feel a burning fire. I usually remain devoid of such feelings. But not this evening. Several times I got goosebumps and felt confirmation from the Holy Spirit that these men had been sent and what they were saying was a message from above.

We don't often experience such experiences and even less often do we talk about them, certainly not outside our own religious circle. But it is worth talking about it and confirming that angels exist. Thus there is hope for everyone who prays for support from the Lord's ambassadors. You just have to realize that they often look like your neighbor or friend and rarely look like a white figure, let alone with wings. But they exist and they perform sacred tasks. I know that for sure this week.