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Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Everyday angels

Päivämies-verkkolehti
Vieraskieliset / In-english
20.9.2019 6.17

Juttua muokattu:

23.12. 02:44
2019122302444820190920061700

Have you ever met an­gels? I mean eve­ry­day an­gels. Dear friends who have wan­ted to dis­cuss the most im­por­tant mat­ters of life and have pre­ac­hed you for­gi­ve­ness even though you have not as­ked for it yet. These friends should not be ta­ken for gran­ted. They are gifts from the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her and a cau­se of gra­ti­tu­de and joy.

One mor­ning, a long time ago, a friend of mine sent me a text mes­sa­ge. She said she had suf­fe­red he­a­vy tri­als, but had now lis­te­ned the mor­ning de­vo­ti­on on the ra­dio and felt that she was being re­mem­be­red. She wan­ted to share her joy for that and for the new con­fi­den­ce she felt. I still re­mem­ber how deep­ly I was touc­hed by that dis­cus­si­on. On that or­di­na­ry week­day mor­ning we bles­sed each ot­her with the gos­pel and the­re­by shed some light in­to the sha­do­wy cor­ners of each ot­her’s per­so­nal li­ves.

I on­ce stu­died with a friend who was an eve­ry­day an­gel. She re­min­ded me that we should go to ser­vi­ces when the ot­her stu­dents in­vi­ted me to come and play snoo­ker. She al­so gave wise and bib­li­cal ans­wers to a fel­low stu­dent who pur­po­se­ly qu­es­ti­o­ned the foun­da­ti­on of our faith. The many dis­cus­si­ons we had strengt­he­ned the bond of friends­hip bet­ween us and made me un­ders­tand that we are gi­ven the kind of sup­port we need at eve­ry stage of life.

While sit­ting at a bon­fi­re with friends, I have of­ten felt that the warmth of the fire has al­so war­med my he­art. Sit­ting there to­get­her, we may have first tal­ked about mun­da­ne things, but our dis­cus­si­on has then mo­ved on to what is most im­por­tant in life. I re­mem­ber the time when one of us took his phone and switc­hed on a pre­sen­ta­ti­on. I do not re­mem­ber anyt­hing about the con­tent of the pre­sen­ta­ti­on, but I cle­ar­ly re­mem­ber the joy I felt while lis­te­ning to it.

We were dif­fe­rent. We all had our own flaws and we­ak­nes­ses. We knew our pains and sor­rows had al­re­a­dy been bor­ne a long time ago. We just nee­ded to be re­min­ded of that. I felt that those pe­op­le were a gift to me at that mo­ment. So that I would re­mem­ber. So that I would have the strength to be­lie­ve.

I have al­so come ac­ross many ot­her an­gels. Some of them have wal­ked by my side for ye­ars, some on­ly for a short while. But they have all had one thing in com­mon. They have sho­wed me the way to he­a­ven.

I now have a very spe­ci­al an­gel. A friend with whom I have ex­pe­rien­ced so­met­hing mi­ra­cu­lous, na­me­ly that the fee­ling of love is strengt­he­ned and dee­pe­ned by for­gi­ve­ness. Do you know that fee­ling? When you have of­fen­ded yo­ur de­a­rest one or stumb­led in some ot­her way – and that per­son just draws you close to him and bles­ses you with the for­gi­ve­ness of all sins. That kind of love ma­kes you whole. And that dear per­son seems the most be­au­ti­ful and won­der­ful per­son in the world.

I have al­so been gi­ven some small an­gels, who of­ten make me stop still in the mid­d­le of my busy home life and fo­cus on so­met­hing more im­por­tant.

Life sud­den­ly seems much less chal­len­ging when one of them says: ”Did you know that Je­sus he­ars even the sound of the dish­was­her? And the sound of tur­ning pa­ges. And the cric­kets in the grass.” Half­way through put­ting on their snow­suits on a cold day I he­ard an im­por­tant re­min­der: ”The snow­suit pro­tects my in­door clot­hes, but Je­sus pro­tects eve­ry­bo­dy, even the Eng­lish pe­op­le!”

And what about the mo­ment when all things seem so chal­len­ging – and you sud­den­ly hear yo­ur teen sing and play in the li­ving-room. The fa­mi­li­ar tune of a song prai­sing God for His gifts goes right in­to yo­ur he­art. At such mo­ments it is ea­sy to be­lie­ve in an­gels. It is ea­sy to be­lie­ve that, wha­te­ver may hap­pen in life, all things are in good hands.

When I think about an­gels, I al­so think about a spe­ci­al friend of my child­ren. That child wants to be­lie­ve, alt­hough her pa­rents have gi­ven up their faith. When I lis­ten to her, I feel that she is sho­wing us the way. With her child­hood faith she is an an­gel for us.

There may be ti­mes in life when we feel that we do not have any re­li­ab­le friends. But even then we are not alo­ne. Though we can­not see it with our tem­po­ral ey­es, we are being re­mem­be­red and car­ried. At all ti­mes.

Text: An­ne Lind­fors

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.

29.3.2024

Jeesus huusi kovalla äänellä: ”Isä, sinun käsiisi minä uskon henkeni.” Tämän sanottuaan hän henkäisi viimeisen kerran. Luuk. 23:46

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