Demons and Angels

It was a beautiful summer day and my youngest son had been hours out by the swamp near our house building a fort with a friend. I sat at my computer in the living room responding to emails and doing a little work on the web site. As I looking out the front window searching for the right words to type I saw my 9 year old coming down the road toward the house. A minute later he came in the back door and sat on the sofa not bothering to take a cookie off the plate that sat on the kitchen table as he passed. This told me there was certainly something wrong.

He sat for several minutes not saying a word but obviously deep in thought. I had learned that he wasn't one to be pushed and when he was ready to share he would. When at last he opened his mouth what came out was not at all what I had expected. Normally it would have been something like he and his friend had disagreed about how to build the fort or some older boys had come in and taken over their hard work.

"Mom, if I see a demon should I tell you about it?" Just as serious as could be but at the same time unusually calm.

My breath was taken away for a minute and before I responded as calmly as I could muster, not wanting to scare him, I had to swallow hard. I didn't want to frighten him but at the same time I was horribly concerned.

"Um, yes it would be a good idea to tell me" was the best I could do praying my voice didn't quiver as I spoke.

It was a minute or so before he said any more, which seemed like hours to me, but when he did the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I shivered.

"Well, I did. Really I saw two."

Still trying to remain calm I asked what the "demons" were doing. He went on to explain that he had seen one just now in the swamp and it was following him. In a matter of fact tone he added, "It didn't scare me though because I know I'm a Christian and it couldn't touch me."

I then asked about the second one, fighting tears at the thought of a demon following my baby. He calmly again informed me a few weeks ago he had seen one in my bedroom. When I asked what that one was doing he said, "Well, you know the bible you always have on your bed? It was floating in the air just above it. I think it might have been the same one I just saw but I'm not sure."

I didn't know what to say but before I needed to he marched out to the kitchen picked a handful of cookies from the table and headed out the door again announcing he was going back to work on the fort.

The very first thing I did was turned back to my computer and composed an email to the Christian group I belong to explaining the situation and requesting prayers of protection for my son. Within minutes I received emails back from three members and all three included prayers worded almost exactly the same asking God to send an angel to watch over my son.

Several days passed and nothing more was said about "the demons" when once again my son came bounding into the house from the fort project. This time was different though, there was an air about him, like he had grown two inches since I'd seen him an hour or so earlier. His head held high he was almost floating on air himself.

As before he sat on the sofa but this time he proudly announced, "Hey, you wanna hear if I saw an angel?"

Of course I did and asked what the angel was doing. Out of the mouth of this nine year old came the words I expected to hear this time. "She was just watching over me."

Now, I should explain during this same time I had been reading several books by a Christian author who described angels as fierce warriors, big strong men and had shared some of these stories with my son. You would naturally think if a young boy was going to make up a story about an angel he would have described the angel more in this fashion. But he didn't. "She was all white except her face that was skin colored but she didn't have feathers. She was light and fluffy, like a cloud. Oh and she didn't have one of those round things on her head like you see in the pictures."

On that note he got up and was out the door proclaiming as he went, "I'm going back to work on the fort I just thought I'd tell you so you didn't have to worry about the demons anymore." As of this writing neither of us has ever seen a demon again nor have we seen another angel but I know they are there, watching over us when God feels we need them.