Pieces of Angels

When I think of angels, the first thing that comes to mind is a mythical type of winged unisex character like Tilda Swinton's portrayal of the angel Gabriel in the movie Constantine. A being straight out of a Renaissance painting.

I don't think this stereotypical version is what embodies the proverbial "angel". I have a little bit of a different take on it. I think that maybe an angel is that Twilight Zone landscape 'where man ends and God begins'. I think an angel is the flash of light that is the manifestation of Divine Love. While alive I think we have a little bit of angel in us, but once we pass and are made perfect in grace, we cease to be human and begin to be....to be what? An angel perhaps? Why not? Those we love who pass come to know peace. Many times you hear about loved ones ushering family members and loved ones into their passing, or waiting for them when they 'arrive'. Maybe those who loved us on earth are the angels spoken of in the Bible. Unless angels are really God's helper-monkeys: whereas you are sitting in the waiting room and a winged angel walks in with a clip-board, calls your name and says "God will see you now."

No, I think there are pieces of angels in all of us. A good example is my father-in-law, Lou. He led a hard life, having witnessed the suicide of his own father as a child, struggled throughout his life with addictions, struggled to keep a job, make ends meet and support a wife and three boys. He had such a hard time of it. Now, as his health and body is failing and he ventures into the winter of his life, it can be said that he possessed (and possesses) pieces of angels. He was not only a father to my husband, but to a friend named Chuck whose own father had abandoned him as a boy. Lou took Chuck under his wing and championed him. And I don't think Lou could have ever guessed just how great an impact his actions of love had on, not only the lives of his wife and children, but on the adopted son he never expected to help raise.

No, I think an "angel" is the best part of a human and the most human part of God.