I am sure we have all heard or read stories of guardian angels. Sister White tells us that “A guardian angel is appointed to every follower of Christ” (The Great Controversy, p. 512) and is there by our side.
I have mentioned in previous articles that my family were missionaries in Africa when I was a child. At the last house we lived in, our yard had a lot of trees, including one in the lower backyard in which we played house. We had used rocks to outline the living rooms on the ground floor, and we had our bedrooms upstairs in the branches of the tree.
At that time, we had a German Shepherd named Sheppy, and we kept him close to us while we were in the yard. We couldn’t allow him to run free much of the time for fear that he might leave the yard and get bitten by something with rabies.
One day, while we were playing in our treehouse and Sheppy’s rope was tied to the trunk, a local started up the stairs to the backyard. Before he got halfway up the stairs, Sheppy lunged at him, barking. He would have attacked the man were it not for being tied up.
Mother came out of the house to find out what was causing all the commotion. The local was still standing part way up the stairs and asked for work. Mother told him that we didn’t have any work for him, and he left.
We later learned that he had gone further down the road to another house, where he entered through an unlocked door and tried to steal the sound system. What he didn’t know was that the man of the house was home and heard him. He caught the local, tied him up and took him to the police station.
We didn’t notice anything different about this man. He looked very much like all the other people who came looking for work or to sell something. We don’t know what might have happened if he had come all the way up the stairs, but our four-legged guardian angel sensed that he wasn’t someone we wanted around.
The devil uses similar tactics. He comes to us with innocent-appearing temptations. If we don’t have a close relationship with God and don’t pay any attention to our guardian angel’s warnings, he will do what he wants with us.
Millions of people don’t know anything about God or that they have a guardian angel to protect them.
Please prayerfully consider ways that you can help spread God’s message to these people. Is He calling you to become a missionary, or is He asking you to help support missionaries financially? If you feel you are unable to do either, there is one thing that you can do: you can pray for our missionaries and their work.
