Small Mysteries

I came home from a grocery store trip today and when I got to the back door of my house, the sliding door wouldn't open. Despite the fact that it was unlocked, the door would not move. I made several attempts to open it, then gave up and walked around the house to the front door. There, sitting on the front porch in front of my door, was a UPS package. Were it not for the stuck back door, I would have entered the house as usual and would not have known the package was there.

The stuck back door was a "first-time" event. The door had never gotten stuck like that before today. I picked up the package and entered the house and walked to the back door. I was easily able to slide the door open and closed. I did nothing to fix the door. It simply was no longer stuck.

I don't know if there are "porch pirates" in my neighborhood, but they seem to be everywhere. So, I'm glad I found the package before it could have been stolen. Which means, I'm glad the back door was stuck, thus forcing me to enter the front door. 

The package wasn't for me; it was for my Latina guest (who left four days ago) and it arrived late. It was supposed to arrive on December 3 and it arrived on December 9. If an angel was involved in protecting the package, he (the angel) wasn't helping me, he was helping my guest. 

Why do I refer to the angel as "he"? In religious contexts, many angels are referred to as "he" and "him." Recall the archangels Gabriel and Michael. Recall the archangels Raphael and Uriel. If an angel was involved in such a trivial matter—and why not? and who are we humans to judge what is trivial and what is not?—then the angel involved must be Raphael. How do I know? That is a long story, and it involves many nigh-unbelievable events that I cannot yet write about and which the world may not be ready to hear. 

I have a guardian angel. I must have, because in my younger years I did some incredibly foolish things and I somehow came through unscathed. Some would say I was lucky. I would say I had a guardian spirit helping me at those times. I think we all do, but some of us refuse to listen. I once had a married, female friend who already had two boys when she got pregnant again. She lost the baby through a miscarriage. Eventually she became pregnant again. One night she phoned me and told me that she had started spotting, and she said that is how her previous miscarriage began. She asked me to send my angel to her and save the baby. I did ask, and the spotting stopped and a few months later a healthy baby boy was born. Was an angel really involved? Did I play any part?

I don't know. The world is far stranger than any of us can fathom. We only think we have it figured out, but no one has it figured out. I want my Latina friend to write about her angel—Raphael. But time is fleeting and filled with busy trivia that seems important at the moment it's happening. Mystery abounds, and sometimes we discover the why of things, but much later, and sometimes we never discover the why. 

As Paul said, "For now we see through a glass, darkly..." We don't even know all the questions, to say nothing of all the answers. It is something I ponder in the early, dark hours of morning.