In 2008 doctors found one small block in an artery of my heart. It was too small to fix. In 2012 I started to have increased symptoms of a blocked ticker. I tried to get in to been seen by the VA but was only ignored. Two years later the symptoms got bad enough that I finally went back to my civilian doctor. He put me straight in for an angiogram. We expected that the one block had gotten bad enough that it could now be ballooned open. As expected it had become 80% closed. What was not expected was that the other two arterial branches were also blocked at 90 – 95%. My heart was a time bomb with little time left on it. There was no option but to have open heart bypass.
As I was wheeled off to recovery the doctor went out to talk to my wife. She did not take the news well. It filled her with fear and worry and she was a mess of uncontrollable emotion. Then at her side appeared a man. He was shabby in appearance, almost looking homeless. He was holding a bible in his hand. He told my wife not to worry, that everything was going to be alright. Then he asked if he could pray with her for a while. When she wasn’t looking the man slipped away and she never saw him again.
True to his word my surgery went without a hitch. I was up and walking in the ICU just hours after leaving recovery. Everyone was amazed how the life returned to my face. I healed quickly and without complication. I was given a reprieve, a second chance at living past fifty.
The man in the waiting room, I have no doubt that he was an angel. An angel, by definition, is nothing more than a messenger. In celestial form an angel is a servant of God. They are pure spirits who occasionally are allowed to take human form to perform a task. We are assured by Holy Scripture that each of us has a guardian angel whose job it is to watch over us and guide our way to heaven. So was this guy a celestial angel sent to calm my wife or just a good guy with nothing better to do than hang around a hospital waiting room looking for someone to comfort? You can decide that for yourself. As for me, he provided my wife the comforting words she needed to hear and that makes him a gift from God either way.