The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. ~ Isaiah 50:4a

In the hospital bed next to Rodney’s, a man in his 40’s was lying down, his face contorted in pain, his knee in a sling. As the nurses were transferring Rodney from his gurney to his bed, he saw dragon-shaped demons shooting sharp quills from their tails into the middle-aged man’s knee.  A woman with long blond hair laid her hands over his wounded knee and began to pray out loud, “Dear Lord, please send your angels to protect Jim.”

A winged cherub swooped into the room and folded his wings over the sick man. The poisoned darts and arrows thudded into the angel’s wings instead of into their fleshy target. “And please, Father God, protect his torn ligaments from further injury.” The cherub lifted his flaming sword, pointed it at one of the demon dragons, and fired a bolt of lightning that swept the evil spirit out of the room. The second demon, with fear on his face, flew out voluntarily.

Rodney’s eyes, full of the import of what they had just taken in, were about to pop out of his head. Right then, the blond woman looked up at Rodney and saw his distress. She apologized and drew the curtain between the two beds.

Shortly thereafter, a Korean-American boy called Kim walked in followed by his dominion angel. Wearing the white linen uniform of every guardian angel, Koram greeted his old pal Barook, and Adoram who was also Koram’s supervising angel. As the angels conversed about Rodney and geisterseherkraft, the boys carried on in their usual manner.

“Suh, bro!” said Kim as he looked his best friend over.

“Hey, ham bone!” Rodney practically shouted back. You must have ridden your bike here. No way your dad let you borrow the car on a Sunday afternoon.” 

“Yeah. I couldn’t pass up the chance to make fun of you in person, bacon bits,” said Kim.

Kim had been friends with the clumsy one for years. Their parents knew each other well and encouraged the youths to hang out together. Rodney’s parents had always felt that they were getting the better part of that deal. Although they were the same age, Kim was more mature and grounded than Rodney. The Simplessohns knew he was a good influence on their somewhat silly son. Kim pulled out his phone and held it up in front of Rodney. “So, let’s hear it in vivid detail.”

“You’re making an iMovie of this?”

“Of course I am. Walk me through all of the gloriously painful parts.”

Rodney complied with his friend’s request, recounting his trip on the bouncing fitness ball, then on top of the ball plus a skateboard, and from there to the mini trampoline which had an immense amount of springiness for its size. He described flying through the air, feeling a little weird and elated near the ceiling, and then falling back toward the ground without being afraid for some inexplicable reason. Then Rodney told how he landed in a soft pile of clothes without injury.

“So what are you doing in here?”

“Well, after that I tripped and smashed my face into the floor. That really hurt.”

“So falling from the ceiling left you unbruised, but landing on the floor from five feet away put you in the hospital?”

“Well, I think what really got me here was the fact that I . . . do we have to record this part?”

“Yes. Spill the tea.”

“I kind of fainted. I know—epic fail on my part.”

Kim burst into laughter, his hand shaking so much he could barely keep Rodney in frame.  “Oh man, I’m dead.”

“I hope you win an Oscar. Now can you put that away? I have something serious to ask you.”

“K. That’s comedy gold right there. I think I have enough.” Kim pocketed his phone and sat down in a chair next to Rodney’s hospital bed. “What’s on your mind? Are you worried about whether or not the nurse saw your butt? Because she probably did. Or maybe you’re nervous that the person next to you over there is also laughing at you?” Kim peeked around the curtain. “Nope. He’s asleep.”

“Do you believe in angels and demons?”

“Wait, what? I wasn’t prepared for that question,” stammered Kim. “Where did that come from? Did the doctors say anything about you having a head injury?" 

“Well, they said I don’t have one, but they are keeping me here overnight just to make sure that’s true. I want to know what you think about angels with wings and glowing bodies and flaming swords.” Rodney stole a glance over at Koram, Barook, and Adoram who were now suddenly listening to the teenagers’ conversation.

“Like what Pastor Temple preached on today?” asked Kim.

“Yeah. Is that stuff real? Or it just symbolic?” asked Rodney. “Are we supposed to take it literally?”

“I think so. Why?”

“Well,” Rodney formed the words slowly, not wanting to tip his hand just yet, “I mean if those things were real, wouldn’t we be hearing stories about heavenly spirits all the time? If they’re with us, all around us, wouldn’t people be picking up on it?”

“I guess you could say that’s what miracles are—evidence of the spiritual realm crossing into our reality.”

“K, but shouldn’t there be more YouTube videos about it?”

“Have you looked?”

“No.”

“Let’s see, then.” Kim pulled up YouTube on his phone’s browser and both boys leaned over to take a look.

They found a music video of the Alabama song “Angels Among Us,” and a review of Frank Peretti‘s book This Present Darkness by a goofy kid named Jose Taco Cruz. They also found a painting called “Spiritual Warfare” by Ron DiCianni. It showed a man praying over his young son. It was captioned, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ~James 5:16.”

“I guess I’m talking about real-life interactions and experiences, not songs or books or paintings,” said Rodney. “But I suppose it would be like getting an alien on video. It’s just not that likely to happen.”  

“No, it isn’t.” Kim shook his head and put his phone down. “Does that change your belief in them?”

“What if I told you I saw one?” asked Rodney timidly.

“Saw one what?” asked Kim, his eyes widening. “An angel or a demon?”

“Well, two of them, actually. Angels. Two angels. I saw two angels in the ambulance on the way over here.”

“Whoa. That’s lit. I mean, it sounds lit. Was it lit?”

“Um, yeah. It’s amazing. One of them has six wings. The other one has two wings, and he is glowing with this yellow-brown color that looks like the ring my mom wears sometimes. I think she calls it topaz. They’re both kind of glowing like topaz. They’re wearing these white linen dress-like outfits that people in Bible times wore. The six-winged one has a golden sash like a beauty queen’s.”

“Why did you say they ‘are glowing’ instead of they ‘were glowing’?” Kim’s eyes narrowed a bit as he asked the question.

“Because they are glowing. I’m looking at them right now.” Rodney focused his eyes on the three now very quiet angels in the corner of the room.

“Holy mother of God,” whispered Kim, looking around the room trying to follow Rodney’s gaze. “Where?”

“In the corner over there.” Rodney pointed to Barook who smiled weakly and then to Adoram who gave a slight wave of his hand. Kim couldn’t make out a thing.

“Give me your phone,” said Rodney. “I’ll take a picture of them.”

When the boys looked at the photo Rodney had taken, all that showed up was an empty corner of a hospital room.

“I don’t see anything. How come I can’t see them? Are you sure this isn't your head injury giving you weird visions?" asked Kim.

"I'm not sure, actually. I could be going crazy. But your guardian angel, the one who came in with you, is waving at me right now."

"Well, if he's my guardian angel, then he should know something about me that you couldn't possibly know, right?"

"I guess so."

"So, ask him to tell you something that you wouldn't know otherwise. You can hear them, right?"

“Yes, I can hear them. It’s really freaking me out, bro. I don’t know if I can quite handle this. Wait, your guy just said that you stubbed your toe this morning before church. And that you cursed when it happened! Oh, snap!”

“Well," said Kim, his face reddening, "I guess it’s not a hallucination after all.”

Rodney got out of his bed and wandered over to the angels, waving his hands and arms in front of him. He couldn’t feel anything as his hands passed through their spirit bodies. “Well, I for sure can’t feel them,” he told Kim as he climbed back into his bed, being careful to keep the back of his hospital gown closed.

“K. What if they are a vision? Like in the Bible?” asked Kim.

“That’s bad.”

“Maybe not. Maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, it shows that there really is more to life than we can see. Haven’t we been wanting some kind of proof of that? Haven’t we both questioned what life is all about? Maybe this is the meaning we’ve been searching for. Maybe you’ve finally found your destiny. You’re always saying you don’t have a purpose or know what it is. Maybe this is your purpose.”  

“You’re making my head hurt. I’m not ready for this,” Rodney whined.

“I don’t think God waits until we’re ready,” Kim said as he wandered into the area that Rodney had pointed to a few seconds ago. “Are they over here?” Kim began waving his hands around and through the angels without seeing them. He continued his speech, “David wasn’t ready to be anointed as king when the prophet Samuel sought him out. Abraham wasn’t expecting to have a baby when he was an old man and the angels visited him. Joseph didn’t ask to be made ruler of Egypt. Stuff just happened to them and they dealt with it. If they can do it, you can, too.”

The angel Koram smiled proudly at his charge’s good advice. “What does my angel look like?” asked Kim, whipping his head around to try to catch a glimpse of the angelic being assigned to him.

“What if my faith isn’t strong enough?” asked Rodney, ignoring Kim’s last question.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with you. I think it has everything to do with Jesus and his work on the cross. Jesus did it all for us. All we have to do is rely on Him. Look to Him. He’s already conquered death and hell, remember? He’ll get you through this.”

“That’s some real talk, dude,” said Rodney feeling comforted by his friend’s words. “If these are really angels, I wonder what they want with me,” Rodney wondered aloud.