Angels, Cherubs and Other ET's
How to Measure the Universe
You might want to know why I believe in angels, though I have never personally seen one. My reasons for accepting a Creator God and His Son Jesus Christ as a persons who are interested and involved with my life is because of many things that have happened to me. There have been several life experiances that I have had which I choose to interpret as 'direct interventions'. After reading these, go back and look carefully at what has happened to you during your life time and perhaps re-evaluate what you thought was just 'dumb luck' or circumstances. Some of these stories might seem trivial on the surface, but they happened at a time when they renewed my faith.
In March of 1972, I enlisted in the Air Force (mostly to avoid becoming a foot soldier in Viet Nam). I had been married only a short time and after going through basic training and 'weather school', I was stationed at 'Kincheloe AFB' in northern Michigan. As a lowly airman, I was not eligable for on-base housing and we were told that housing in Sault Ste Marie was nearly non-existant. We took a chance and went up before I was to transfer there to look for a place. The news paper had NO listings for rental property! My wife and I sat on a hillside overlooking the Sault locks and prayed that God would find us somewhere to live. From there, we called on a real estate agency to check if they might know of someone with a place to rent. The women said there had not been anything for some time and we started to leave. She called out for us to wait a minute; there was a man that was fixing up a place, but it was not supposed to be ready for several weeks. That was perfect timing for our expected arrival and we were able to lease a nice down-stairs of a home. We didn't have much at the time: The dining room table was my guitar case. That, a mattress and small black and white TV were the sole furnishings. But we were together and that was what was important.
When you don't have much, that seems to be the time God can show you how much he cares for the little things. I had shoes issued by the Air Force, but I wanted a pair of cowboy boots. Our $500 a month didn't go very far, though we managed to buy our first house; a single bedroom, 10 x 50 mobile home. I spent several cold nights under the house thawing frozen water pipes! One night, while taking out the trash at the weather station office, I noticed something on top of the dumpster. Someone had set a pair of cowboy boots on top of the dumpster! The dumpster was nearly empty, and if the previous owner had thrown them in, I would have never seen them in the dark. They were in need of new heels and some polish, but in great condition! I gratefully wore them for the next three years.
There is a verse that says: ..be anxious for nothing... , that God takes care of even the sparrows and adorns the flowers of the field. He will surely take care of the needs of His children. Years later, I worked in the 'parks department' in the city of Mesquite, Texas. It was a temporary job I took to make myself available when an oppertunity out at the airport was to arise later. It was hot work in the summer! I spent time spraying and cutting the weeds in the flood-control ditches around town. It was a cool treat in the heat of the afternoon to eat a piece of fruit kept chilled in the water jug. My favorite is a peach . This particulary hot afternoon, I was clearing a ditch in a neighborhood with streets crossing the ditch every hundred yards or so. I had no fruit that day and I remember talking to God, and making the comment that a nice fresh peach would sure taste good about then. I came out of the ditch at the next street, and there...lying in the middle of the street was a peach! Though cars came by every few minutes, the peach was untouched. Furthermore, if you have ever dropped a ripe peach on the ground, you know it will have a mushy spot where it hits. This one did not have a soft spot anywhere on it! It was as if someone had set it carefully down on the street where I would be sure to see it!
Cleaning ditches, as well as any hard manual labor is honorable work. However, I have always believed that if a person was able to improve themselves by education and diligent study, they owed it to themselves and their Creator to be the most and the best they can be. I had a commercial pilot's and flight instructors license and took the interim job of overseeing the municipal airport after the city bought it. Within a year, the city council elected to bring in an outside business to take over operations. I asked God to find me something that HE wants me to do. One of my my student pilots happened to work on the fire department. Another co-worker was a police officer with sons on another fire department. There were openings in both the Mesquite Fire Department and police department. My co-worker, the police officer, thought the fire department was a better deal! I put in my application, but I found out that I was about to become too old, at 32 to become a fireman! The test was in October and my birthday in the first part of November. "No problem", said the fireman pilot. "You just have to make number 1 on the entrance exam!" No offence on myself, but I had never been number 1 on any exam. This hurt particularly, because I had lost out on becoming an air traffic controller the year before by two monthes time because I had turned 31 before my eligability number came up.
The day of the test, I put it in the good Lord's hands: "If you want me here, you know what I have to do." I took the test and finished it with enough time to check it over carefully. Something told me to check some three-dimentional drawings in the test that we were supposed to decifer. I ended up correcting 5 answers and that made the difference between being number 1 and number 5 or 6! I was officially hired the day before my 32nd birthday!
There is a time for everything, and everything in it's good time. So said the psalmist. I have loved the sound of the Scottish bagpipes since I was very young. In the summer of 1994, I went to the 'highland games' in Arlington, Texas. I was admiring the band as they were warming up for competition, and asked one of the musicians how one could learn to play the bagpipes. "We'll teach you!", she said. I was a devoted student of 4 monthes and had just purchased my set of bagpipes a few weeks ealier when a word came that a long time member of the department had suffered a heart attack and died. No active member of the Mesquite Department had ever died in it's 35 year history and plans were hastely made for a special fire department ceremony. The sound of 'Amazing Grace' on the bagpipes is truly beautiful. God had made it possible for me to honor a brother firefighter and bring comfort to his family and the rest of the department. I was, and continue to be, the only bagpiper in the department. Since that time, the Lord has allowed me to minister to many Christian families who have lost loved ones. More stories later: If you have some of your own..write and tell me about them!
