A House Full of Angels

Today during snack time Megan confided a Halloween fear. "I'm scared of seeing a ghost when I go trick-or-treating," she said.

I nodded, acknowledging that, yeah, that could be scary. I cherish the rare moments when the more introverted of my two daughters opens up to me in her shy, already-guarded way, and I try hard not to dismiss her feelings. "You don't have to be afraid of anything, you know. You have an angel--an angel that God has asked to watch especially over Megan O'Neill in Hoboken every single day. Your angel isn't more than a few feet from you at all times, and Jesus says that your angel talks to God about you."

Megan smiled, liking this idea. Who wouldn't? "Really? But, I can't see them."

"Well, no. But you know that doesn't mean they aren't here." This is what I love about my children, and all children. They believe without seeing. My whole life I have believed in God without needing visual proof, and I pray that my children will be the same. My faith hasn't saved me from grief and tragic mistakes, but it has saved me from feeling completely alone during those times.

I turned to Ronan, sitting in his high chair happily shoving a bananna into his mouth like a sword swallower. "Buddy, where's your angel?" Without missing a beat, he looked to his right and smiled. I asked him again, and again he grinned and looked straight at spot to his right. At nothing.

Later at dinner we talked about the subject of angels again. Elizabeth raised the question, "Are they boys or girls? Or maybe a boy gets a boy angel and a girl gets a girl angel."

Before I could go into the mystery of angelic gender she shrugged and said, "I guess it's something we don't know." That lovely blind faith again.

It occurred to me that the angels that God has appointed for my children, the angels that constantly see His heavenly face, those angels were sitting around the dinner table with us. They're upstairs, maybe, as I write this, in whatever corners of the bedrooms they hang out in while my precious babies sleep. If filling your home up with guardian angels isn't enough reason to have as many children as God will bless you with, I don't know what is.