In his book on Angels, Billy Graham wrote about when
his maternal grandmother passed away. “Just before she died, grandmother sat up
in bed and almost laughingly said, ‘I see Jesus. He has His arms outstretched
toward me. I see Ben (her husband who had died some years earlier) and I see
the angels.’ She then slumped over, absent from the body, but present with the
Lord.”[1]
Pastor Paul Enns wrote
about what his brother said on his deathbed, “’Who are all those people?’ Only
my sister, his doctor and myself were present in the room, but he kept
commenting that he saw the room filled with unseen figures. I realized the
reality: Angels had come to escort him home.”[2]
Finally, Robert Morgan reported
that he was once called to the hospital room of a 95-year-old church member, Ms.
Agnes Frazier, who was taking her last breaths. “When I entered the room, she
was almost too weak to look up at me. Her words were indistinct at times, but
soon it became clear what she was trying to tell me. She explained, ‘These two men dressed in white are standing at
the foot of bed. What should I say them?’ I could not see anyone, but I told
her, ‘Tell them you belong to Jesus.’ That seemed to satisfy her. Shortly after,
she fell asleep in Christ and those two angels, I believe ushered her to heaven.”[3]
Among the duties of the
angels is the happy privilege of ferrying us to heaven when we die. In Jesus’ account
of the rich man and Lazarus He remarked, “the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s
side” (Luke 16:22). By the way, the term “Abraham’s bosom” or “Abraham’s side”
was a Jewish expression which was synonymous with heaven.
When our souls go to be
with the Lord at the moment of death, the angels pass through an incredible
stretch of atmosphere between heaven and earth. Angels escort believers into
the presence of God, so we won’t have to make the journey alone. Notice also in
the passage from Luke 16:22 that angels is
plural. Certainly, one angel could do the job, but the Lord sent at least two,
which carries the idea that saints are taken home with honor!
Larry Libby in Somewhere Angels added, “God does not
want us to fear death, nor does he want us to fear going to a new place all
alone. God says to us, ‘Just as soon as its time for you to leave the Earth, I
will send someone to guide you to your heavenly home. You won’t be alone. You
won’t be afraid. You won’t have to find your own way. The angel I will send
knows the way home very well.’ God wants you home so much He’ll send His own
angelic escort to meet you, and don’t be surprised if that angel is wearing a
big smile.”[4]
-DM
[1] Billy
Graham, Angels (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday & Co., 1975), 152.
[2] Paul
P. Enns, Heaven Revealed (Chicago: Moody, 2011), 41.
[3]
Robert J. Morgan, The Angel Answer Book (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 2015), 127-128.
[4]
Larry Libby, Somewhere Angels (Eugene,
OR: Harvest House, 1994), 21.
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