Angels Unawares

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It was just another ordinary day. I had been sitting in a dental chair chatting with the dentist, a personal friend of mine, when the whole building shook followed by a tremendous roar. Knowing this could not be a sonic boom my dentist friend turned on the radio.

A terrorist had bombed the Federal Building. Looking out I could see the billowing smoke and flames. Sirens filled the air. I rushed to the scene of the tragedy. It was an ocean of devastation! People were walking about covered with plaster dust and blood. Everyone was in a state of profound shock.

I was standing by the YMCA building when they began to bring the children out. Never in my lifetime will I forget that scene. Cut, bleeding, terrorized the children were too frightened even to cry – the silence of the children was appalling.

As this incredible scenario unfolded before my eyes, something occurred that remains burned into my mind. A man came staggering down the street. He was dirty, unkempt, toothless, dressed in castoff clothes. I assumed he was one of the skid row people that the YMCA reached out to help.

But what made this man different was he clutched a bleeding, battered little girl. This tiny piece of humanity clung to him as though her life depended upon him, and perhaps it did. The ceiling of the daycare center had collapsed upon the children, and he had rushed in to help those little ones to safety.

As I looked into his watery eyes, there shone a light that was just magnificent. It was as though his whole life was lived for this moment. His life had counted for something!

You know the love of God must have arms, and we are those arms. Whether a derelict struggling to find his life or an angel unawares, I don’t know, but this I do God was there in the midst of the carnage and chaos and miracles were taking place.

Availability not acceptability is the criteria God uses.