Song to an Angel

It started in the hospital with my wife in labor with our 2nd son. Like other (contracting) young mothers, she had been behaving badly in the room, doing things like digging her fingernails into my arm and screaming uncontrollably. So I needed a break. This man was exhausted from all her work.

So I walked down the hall and passed a small room with a sign above it that said "Chapel". Well at that time in my atheist-wanna-be life, the last thing I wanted to do was go into a chapel. But something dragged me in there.

Inside this small room, on a podium, was a HUGE Bible. Maybe the original Gutenberg Bible, I don't know. I had no plan to actually read it (ever), but something pointed my eyes at a verse where some poor guy was praying to God to heal his sick wife. I was reading that, hearing my (sick?) wife screaming in a room down the hall. My first of innumerable "coinci-Gods" in my life.

So I ran back to her side, and (finally) out popped kid #2. As I was leaving, my new son's Mother gave me a list of friends and relatives to call and announce this amazing event. So I went running down the hall towards the exit door, and it felt like something — someone? — literally grabbed my arm and drag me back into the chapel. "Oh God, no!"

My tired eyes were directed to a verse where some dude was thanking God for the power He gave a woman. Now at that time I was a young, vibrant macho male who could do anything. Except I could not perform that one incredible miracle I had just witnessed from one screaming angel. Can you spell humbled?

I have asked several Bible Scholars where that verse is, and they draw a blank. But I swear that is what I read. God musta stuck that fresh verse ONLY into that specific Bible on its open page for me to see. (If he can part a flowing river to help thousands cross, modifying Bibles on occasion  happens).  So I ran home, scared to death about the power I had just felt in those rooms.

In the middle of calling people whose names were on the list, this song showed up. The last verse says "And I thank God your virtues are passed on to all you touch." I thought — "I can't write that down... I don't believe in God". But I gave in and was a dutiful scribe to the real author - my Holy Spirit - the "advocate" Jesus promised He would have his Father send to each of us.

The last line of this song was added a few years ago, dedicated to the aforementioned angel: "You truly have and hold God's glorious soul."