THE EMMAUS WALK PRESENTS:

"My Two Angel Stories,"

by Ronald Ginther

I have told many people, but I will now share this with you, how an angel made my day, by saving money I would surely have lost.

It was my day to pay bills. I got up from my bed after a night's sleep, dressed and drove to the bank, drew out several hundred dollars in twenties, and then went to the post office to buy money orders and send them off to various creditors.

All this was routine, I had done it dozens of times before. This time it went wrong. I found out too late that I had been dropping twenty dollar bills the whole way from my car to where I stood in line waiting inside the post office for a clerk to wait on me.

I was standing there when I heard a man's voice call out from behind the long line, "Did anybody lose some money?"

Surprised, I glanced down just to make sure it wasn't me, and though I wasn't 100 per cent sure, I said, "Yes," thinking I might have, and I needed to check. As I was checking, the man didn't wait one moment but thrust the money he had gathered outside on the ground right into my hand, and dashed off. I wasn't going to let him go without one glance, for some reason, and I saw him. He was young, blond-haired, and casually but neatly dressed, without anything in his clothes to identify him, on the tall order, but "average" otherwise.

He had come and gone so fast, I didn't think to try to stop him. I quickly started counting, and was still doing that when the clerk called me to the counter. I then went and bought the money orders I needed, and I was not one twenty dollar bill short! Obviously, I was the one who had lost the money. I knew beforehand that I was probably the only one carrying money loose like that in an envelope, so I had not hesitated to say I was the one who had lost it outdoors. All this goes on so fast, there is really no time to think, but these were my thoughts, or impressions at the time.

I was amazed by the incident as I left the post office, and I was thanking God, knowing that God had put that person in my life just to help me when I needed intervention of that kind. Who else would it be, but someone sent from God? People don't usually act the way he acted. A regular person would have paused to talk with me, but he didn't even want me to see him obviously. I had gotten a look at him because I was for some reason determined not to let him go without me getting a look at him. I am glad I did, for as I thought about it some more, and told people what had happened, I began to see that this Good Samaritan who came to my rescue fit the descriptions of angels I had read about.

Some reasons why I believe he was an angel: 1. He did not call attention to himself, he was unusually self-effacing.

2. He did his work, accomplished his mission, then vanished.

3. He was not dressed out of the ordinary.

4. He was blond, taller than average, young-looking (not twenty, but no more than thirty). 5. He was a he--there is no record of a female angel in the Bible.

As I said, he moved so quickly, I had to act so quickly or I would not have got a single look at him, this was obvious to me afterwards that he was most wanting me not to see him but couldn't avoid it entirely, having to give me the money personally.

Now a human being could look and act the way he did, but this particular person was just too intent by his actions and manner that I shouldn't see him for me to accept he was a human being and not an angel. I never in my life ever encountered someone like this--he wouldn't even let me have eye contact with him or thank him, for as he thrust the money into my hand, he looked away from me, and the next moment was out the door!

The founder of Christ for the Nations, Dallas Texas, states in his book about angels: "Ordinarily when angels appear to men, they at once deliver their message, and then with equal celerity depart [my visiter from heaven certainly departed with "celerity"!--Ronald Ginther}. Righteous angels worship God and will not receive worship directed to themselves. People, not unnaturally, are awed by their presence and at such times may be tempted to worship them (Rev. 22:8-9). Perhaps for this reason God does not permit angels to fraterize with human beings."--Gordon Lindsay, MINISTRY OF ANGELS, page 3.

"Angels are the princes of heaven who stand before God. They are also ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation. Angels are of a different order than human beings. Although they closely resemble humans in appearance, the angels are spirit beings but not disembodied spirits. They have bodies, though not physical bodies. Yet they have power to appear as physical beings at such times as they choose."--Gordon Lindsay, MINISTRY OF ANGELS, page 2.

My Second Angel Story

I was a gardener for many years, since the time I was a young boy. It was really the only way I could make spending money in this town (other than pick raspberries during the growing season, which only lasted about a month and a half), where there was too much competition at the few grocery stores for boys who wanted to work there. At that time there weren't the fast food restaurants, so jobs for young people were definitely scarce and hard to get. I couldn't even get a paper route--as those who had them held on to them for dear life.

When I graduated from high school, I went into landscaping at my uncle's business in Minneapolis, and with the skills I added to what I already knew, I continued on my own as a self-employed landscaper. This did not land me any lucrative contracts, however. I was never really a businessman about it, and did not care to be. I enjoyed gardening, and I liked my customers, and many kept with me for most of my life. I still have one gardening customer after forty five years of serving her. She is, as you can imagine, a close friend too!

Now the lady I was working for was my pasor's mother, who lived alone after her husband passed away. She had lately fallen and hurt herself somewhat badly. I had heard about it, and had prayed for her, as she was a delightful lady whose love of Jesus shone in her smiling coffee. She was also hospitable, and had coffee and conversation with me--something I really enjoyed.

I was out in the yard, with a clear view of the back porch, when she came out. She started down the back steps, which had no rail. I saw her clearly, that she had missed a step and was flying over the remaining three steps. Before my horror-struck eyes, she was going to crash down on the ground!

I had no time to get up and run to her from where I was weeding a flowerbed. I had no time even to cry out. But I saw something miraculous happen in the next, seemingly terrible moment when she would hit the ground. Her hand was outstretched, probably because she saw she was falling and needed to stop herself somehow, and "something" or "someone" must have caught her hand, for her whole body straightened in flight and set down perfectly on her feet, without even tipping over. She was standing upright at the bottom of the steps, looking surprised in her facial expression, but it was a look of pleasant surprise, as if she were saying, "Oh! Thank you!"

I do believe she knew it was God, or an angel who had kept her from a bad accident, breaking her bones, no doubt. But she made no mention of it to me, and just went back into the house. I couldn't hardly believe my own eyes. I had seen a near tragedy almost happen, but someone or something had caught her hand and was strong enough as well to set her back on her feet witout the slightest effort, as if she weighed a feather.




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