Personal Protectors - Angels

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I have something that has bugged me for far too many years. No one seems to have an appreciable answer. In all my years of ministry since 1982, I have not come up with an answer. HELP. I have a huge problem with children especially, coming down with all manner of crippling or terminal conditions. I see them on the NET and in TV ads (like St. Jude’s Hospital). Others are tragedies involving a Father of three getting killed leaving his wife and children. We all receive a Guardian Angel at Conception. He stays with us into eternity. Here’s my dilemma: Where was the Guardian Angels for my sample subjects? Why, if he is always with us, did he permit the tragedies I used as an example? I read stories of Angels entering into the lives of some and still not others. It is puzzling to say the least. HELP + Lawrence
 
God’s angels don’t stop people from dying if it is their time to go. The only time they intervene is if the person has a task to perform for God that they have not completed yet. Other than that, they act as guides and messengers behind the scenes.
 
The only solution I’ve ever been able to come up with is that pain and suffering, in the way we feel it, is unique to us, and doesn’t mean the same thing to God as it does to us. It is a big deal to us, but perhaps it is of little concern in God’s grand scheme. A God like that is probably a more impersonal God than is true, but that’s the gist of my thoughts about it. I’m open to being wrong about it to.

The concept of ‘the merciful God’ has helped me to give more acceptance to this point of view. Allow me to explain…take a person with an average knowledge of God who has endured so much tragedy that it causes them to reject God, commit countless grave sins and lead others down the same path. I believe God will take everything into consideration at this person’s judgment, and may even have a place of rest for these poor souls who fall into such a sorry state during their lifetime.
 
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Apart from the “God’s will be done” point, when discussing people past young child age, it’s likely some of them have stronger relationships with their guardian angels than others, and may be more likely to heed whatever warnings or directives an angel is trying to communicate. There are some saints who had a strong relationship with their guardian angel and were always getting help and advice from them. But if you don’t have that relationship with your angel, you may miss some message they are trying to convey to you and may end up harmed as a result.
 
1Lord1Faith said:
The only solution I’ve ever been able to come up with is that pain and suffering, in the way we feel it, is unique to us, and doesn’t mean the same thing to God as it does to us. It is a big deal to us, but perhaps it is of little concern in God’s grand scheme.
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I wouldn’t say “little concern” but perhaps “different concern.” Our lives to God are but a second, earthly pain is over quickly to him, and he is also aware of all the effects each occurrence, such as human pain, might potentially have. We aren’t so aware. We can’t usually see any positives coming out of human suffering.
 
Children have been suffering and dying since the beginning of humanity. Remember the massacre of the Innocents after Jesus’s birth. The reality is, such things happen and will continue to happen. It is part of the mystery of evil which we cannot fully grasp in this life.
 
Whatever type of concern it is, I don’t really understand it. I think I may be able to grasp some sense of it through an inadequate analogy, and then just shrug my shoulders.

It’s helpful for me to use the parent-child relationship in order to help understand the God-person relationship. I understand how a child’s pain and suffering is much greater to the child than the parent. Parents even allow their children to get hurt or fail so that they can grow. It’s not that the child’s pain means nothing to the parents, it just that it means more to the child. That all I can comprehend.

But, comparing that to the greater suffering that God allows isn’t a gap that I can bridge with that analogy. So I sort of end up back at square one.
 
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What we need to remember is that we are all instruments for God. This includes angels and our own guardian angels. They are there to guide us toward Christ, and at times this may involve saving us from death or suffering, but in the end it comes down to what God wills for us. And if God wills that we die at a specific time, then our angel has no right to impede our end.

If He wills that we must suffer tremendously, then as good servants we must endure this suffering with hope for the next life. Whenever faced with personal grief or the suffering of others, I turn to the book of Job and reflect on the tragedies that befell him and the unshakable faith he had in the will of God. Remember that while we can only see the tragedies of the moment, God can see the full tapestry of salvation history and knows the good that comes from such terrible things.

Remember to have faith in God’s will and hope for eternity.
 
The police scanner was running in the background a while ago. I heard a policeman urgently radioing for EMS to come to a certain road. Someone had been run over. I recognized the place, which was near a particular buffalo ranch I’m familiar with. Hm. So I started praying quietly for the person, which is what I usually do in that kind of situation. You hear the LifeFlight helicopter coming in, you pray some more, you get on with your day, keeping an ear on the radio and an eye on FB…

It took a while for FB to catch up. A friend of mine posted that her husband had just been run over. Then a bit later, she reported that he had passed away. I cried. I was sad for him, to get taken away in such a senseless accident. I was sad for my friend, to lose her husband so abruptly. I was just sad, period.

The details came out over the next few hours/days. He had gotten out to close the gate, and the truck’s brake wasn’t engaged properly, and it rolled over him. It knocked him down, and it crushed his chest. He was alive for about 30 minutes, waiting for LifeFlight, talking with the other ranch hands. I can’t remember if he died at the hospital, or if he died en route.

I was scrolling through his FB page, checking out his posts for the last year or two. He was an older gentleman-- he was wrestling with the idea of aging, deteriorating. He was a vigorous outdoorsman-- he was having trouble with the idea of being cooped up in a nursing home, being limited by poor health, not being able to do the stuff he loved.

More details came out. About an hour before he died, he had visited his wife at work and had given her a hug and kiss and told her he loved her. When he died, his last words were to tell her that he loved her. Also when he was lying there, waiting, he was able to feel that he had wrenched his ankle— but he didn’t feel the pain of blood loss and a crushed chest. He didn’t grow old, or weak, or infirm, or need people to help keep him clean and fed. He died with his favorite pet (who rode in the truck with him) at his side, surrounded by the buffalo he loved to work on the ranch, in the great outdoors, in a place that he loved, with two friends at his side.
 
So ultimately, even though we were all struck with sadness at the suddenness of it— and maybe it’s not the sort of thing we’d wish for when we’re sitting comfortably in our chairs— he had the grace of being given the sort of death he wanted. Not a slow decline into feebleness and dementia, but a relatively quick death surrounded by everything he liked the best— and what’s most, he was spared the agonizing pain that you would normally associate with that kind of tragedy.

We all get a certain amount of time to do what we’re supposed to do on earth. Some of us accomplish it very quickly, and get taken on. Others of us take a lot longer… and we get the privilege of a little extra time to get it done. Sometimes, we make a giant mess of things, whether on purpose or by accident, and God’s kind enough to stop our clock in time to keep us from offending him any further with our selfish choices. Any number of things can happen, but ultimately, God’s not going to ask me to account for other people’s time, other people’s choices, and other people’s lives. He’s going to hold me accountable for my time, my choices, and my life… and I’ll fall short of the mark. And at that point, I won’t be too worried about whatever tragedy took me from this life… that’s for the people I left behind to work their way through, although I’ll hope that God’s similarly merciful with me during my transition, in whatever way I need the most when the time comes.

But the tragedy itself is just the segue from Act I to Act II. The important stuff happens before it, and happens after it. 💚
 
All I know is that nothing much good comes from “why does God allow this?”, “why does God allow that?”, conversations… His ways are not our ways so give Him thanks and praise
 
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