Day 21: Entertaining Angels

 

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:1-2

As we walked around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on our first date, a woman approached us.  The state of her hair and clothing screamed the fact that she was homeless and was about to ask us for something.

“Excuse me, can I have some money for food please?” 

My date asked what she wanted to eat.  She pointed to the building behind us and said that she would like some shrimp from back there.

Steve pointed to the two restaurants in front of us, ESPNzone and Hard Rock Cafe.  “Pick one of these,” he said.

When we got into the restaurant he asked for a menu from the bar and told her to pick whatever she wanted off of it.  While we waited for her food, we talked with her about her life.  She had lost her job and her house.  She was living in a shelter in Baltimore County, but had taken the bus to the Harbor to look for food.

We told her we were on our first date.  That we had met at church.  And that God loved her.

As we parted ways, we told her we would be praying for her.

Fifteen months later, as we walked around the Inner Harbor on the day after our wedding, we reminisced about “our” homeless woman.  She had said her name was Whoopi, but it was probably just a nickname due to the state of her hair.  We wondered what had become of her.

Later that day, we were in the basement of our hotel getting the left-overs from our reception heated up.  The hotel restaurant was not officially open yet, but they said they would help us out.

As we waited, Steve felt a tap on his shoulder.  When we turned around, we were completely shocked.

For standing right in front of us was Whoopi. 

Once the three of us got over the shock, she shared that after meeting us her life had turned around.  But just recently things had gotten bad again.  She rejoiced when she heard that we had gotten married and thanked us for praying for her. 

When our food was brought back out to us, we handed her both meals.  As we parted, we again told her that God loved her and we would be praying for her.

The woman who we ministered to on our first date, got to share in our wedding supper.

When ever I think of this story, I am completely blown away.  There is no way that meeting Whoopi again, the day after our wedding, was a coincidence.  The only way to explain it is that it was orchestrated by God.

I admit that I sometimes wonder if Whoopi was an angel, sent by Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Lord of Hosts, to confirm to us that the decision to get married was the right one.  Either way, what happened reminds me of God’s intimate involvement in our lives.

The Lord of Hosts is a title for God that speaks of His rule over every power in the material and spiritual universe.  The term hosts is most often used to describe angelic beings, the cherubim and seraphim.  Yahweh Tsebaoth is so magnificent and powerful that ALL creation serves his purposes.

I can remember a teacher of mine telling a story about when she was young and at the beach.  She had drifted far from the shoreline and was in a dangerous area of the ocean. 

All of the sudden there was a man beside her who took her hand and guided her back to where her parents were on the beach.  When they turned to thank him, he had disappeared and they could find him nowhere.

She believes that Yahweh Tsebaoth sent an angel to save her that day.

The God we serve is mighty and powerful with a heavenly army at His disposal. 

The morning after our wedding, we heard this song in the car while we were driving my husband’s tux back to the store.  We even asked each other if we thought we had ever encountered an angel. 

Be on the look out, because you never know when you, too, may be entertaining angels . . .