Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times
June 16, 2009 11:55 pm
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A Tale
Each night, before going to sleep, Mama prayed for a guardian angel to watch over her children.
Mama prayed for the Lord to send a guardian angel to protect her children and to keep them from harm. She prayed for a guardian angel to keep her youngsters on the straight and narrow and to lead them not into temptation. She prayed for a guardian angel to show them the way, for a guardian angel to be an advocate for them.
Mama prayed for a guardian angel because she loved her children and fretted over them. In those dark minutes when the whirlwind days and evenings slowed into night and sleep remained still a few moments more away, Mama would worry more than usual about her small children.
So she prayed for a guardian angel to keep watch after her children. She prayed this each night first with concentration. Mama prayed it until her fears were eased, her cares lifted, and she prayed until she dozed off to sleep. Every night, for each child.
On some days, Mama didn’t feel like the Lord had answered her prayers. At least, she didn’t feel that the request had been granted anyway.
A child would nearly step out into traffic and Mama would have to pull the child to safety in the nick of time. Or a youngster would get into trouble and Mama would have to help the child out of trouble.
Through the years, her children suffered bad grades, broken bones, skinned knees, broken hearts, disappointments, defeats, embarrassments, illnesses, and many of the hardships which life holds.
Mama suffered right along with her children. She helped them with their homework when they didn’t understand the assignment. She wiped away their tears. She offered encouraging words when they were disappointed. She tended and kissed their scrapes and bruises. She hugged them when they were lonely. She drove them to school activities, to play sports, to dance practice, to church. She let them pursue their dreams. She stood up for her children when no one else seemed to care.
And some days, especially those days when everything went wrong for her children, on these days, Mama often felt like the Lord had abandoned her request, or that the guardian angel had been given the day off. She’d feel this frustration for a moment or two. Then, she’d count her blessings and pray for a guardian angel for her children again that night, as she did every night.
One day, though, one terribly bad day, Mama’s youngest child fell ill. It was an illness that sent the child to the hospital. And Mama sat by her child’s side in the hospital room.
As night came and the child’s fever remained high, Mama felt despair. She prayed for her child’s safety. She prayed for a guardian angel to look over the child, but she felt that the Lord had not sent a guardian angel. Mama despaired and doubted.
Still, she prayed until sleep took her, and Mama fell into a dream.
In the dream, she stood before Him. She asked Him, why, why He would not send a guardian angel for her child?
He said in Mama’s dream that she should think. She should remember. Remember the many times that her children had been saved or helped and blessed. And He helped Mama remember these times, all at once, in an instant.
There was no guardian angel on these occasions, Mama said in her dream. She knew a guardian angel had likely protected her children from numerous situations which she could never know, but Mama didn’t feel there had been a guardian angel on the times which He had revealed to her.
All of these situations, He said, were handled by the guardian angel for which she had prayed.
“Know that I am with you,” He said to Mama, “and know that your prayers have been answered. I have granted your children a guardian angel to care for them until I call them home. I have answered your prayers for a guardian angel to watch over your children. That guardian angel is you.”
Mama awoke with a start. Her youngest child was stirring. The fever had broken. Mama wiped the child’s brow with a damp cloth, and Mama watched over the youngster, like a guardian angel, throughout the remainder of the night.
Dean Poling is The Valdosta Daily Times assistant managing editor.
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