By April Terry

Right before Christmas, we got a letter from a lady who attends one of our services because her mother is one of our seniors. She wanted to tell us about how our messages and music had helped her through a couple of personal losses that she had been going through. She’d lost some longtime friends of the family, and even more recently, had lost a cousin who was a deputy sheriff killed in the line of duty. In remembrance, she decided to do something positive to help her through the loss of her cousin, and she bought one thousand pocket angels.

After our service one day, we decided to invite her to have lunch with us and she described how she would hand them out. Whenever she met someone new that she thought might like or need one, she would produce one. Sometimes she told her cousin’s story, and sometimes she didn’t. What astounded me was that she had already given more than one thousand and was nearly up to fifteen hundred.

It’s an amazing amount of people we meet over a number of months, if we think about it and she was able to put a number on her connections because she had her pocket angels to give. Imagine a beautiful, white, glass angel sitting in the palm of your hand and then imagine giving one to ever person that you meet and connect with. When I think about it, it kind of puts a picture in my head about the part we play in this world.

I grew up in a family that valued individuality, and individuality is good, but if it becomes a catalyst for isolation then it’s a substandard surrogate for what I would call the universal truth that God has created us to be people who need each other. Our new friend is the opposite of isolation, and the little angels that she distributed are a symbol of her reaching out to others. Sometimes, we just forget the impact that we have on the lives of others. We think of ourselves as insignificant, but there is something special in all of us that gives us the strength and the courage to break out of our cocoon and see the world.

There is always some measure of risk involved when we stretch out our hand. We risk rejection and that never feels good, nor does it make us want to reach out again. Many people that I work with and know personally think that I am an incredibly outgoing person, and yet, simply opening a line of conversation with someone I don’t know makes my heart flutter and my hands tremble. It feels almost like stage fright, but I have also learned that God’s plan for me is a wonderfully exciting adventure where I meet wonderful characters of all shapes, sizes, and interests. I enjoy looking into their depths, and I imagine that God must delight in the uniqueness of each of his children in much the same way. When He sees one of His children begin to peel back the layers of their fears, hopes, and dreams, He sees a beautiful multi-faceted gemstone begin to sparkle and dazzle in its own way.

Fear is really what is keeping us from handing out our own pocket angels. Maybe they aren’t actual angels that sit in our pockets. Maybe the pocket angels are just the excuses we need to make a connection with someone we don’t know. Whatever gets us to move past our fear of rejection, is most precious indeed.