2016-06-30
Reprinted with permission from Joan Wester Anderson's website.

Some of the most popular angel experiences occurring today are by children who have seen angels. Of course not every "imaginary companion" is indeed an angel, but preschoolers are still so close to heaven (and sinless) that they can interact with both worlds in ways we can't understand. Kathleen Fidler has observed this phenomenon several times, and it has led to an interesting question: Are we given an extra angel?

"When my daughter, Mary Kate, was almost three years old," Kathleen says, "I was tucking her into bed one night. We had just finished our prayers, and I began talking with her about angels. I told her how much God loves her and that she is never alone because she has a special angel who is with her all the time and who will never leave her."

Mary Kate responded immediately. "We have TWO angels, Mommy," she said, "not one." Kathleen was a bit startled. "That could be," she acknowledged. "I know for sure that everyone has ONE angel, but maybe sometimes we have more."

But, little Mary Kate was adamant—there were two angels for everyone. "Her conviction was so strong that I did not forget it," Kathleen says. "However, I did not mention it to her again."

In 1993 Kathleen had her fourth child, Jonathan. One day when he was about 2, she was playing with him and talking about Jesus and how much Jesus loved him. "Jonathan was completely disinterested in the conversation until I asked if he had an angel who watched over him everyday," Kathleen recalls. "Then he said, with an annoyed tone in his little voice, that of course everyone knew there were TWO angels."

Kathleen immediately remembered the conversation she once had with her daughter about three years before, when Mary Kay was about the same age. This time, Kathleen probed a little further by asking Jonathan if he remembered anything else from his time in heaven. "Very matter-of-factly, he told me that God and Jesus looked exactly the same except God had silver hair and Jesus' was brown. Then he was done talking and he wanted to play."

The kids were too young to remember these conversations, but when the children got older Kathleen told them about the conversations; Mary Kate was very interested. One Christmas Eve at a relative's house, she was looking at the Christmas tree with her little cousin, Thea, who was about 2 1/2 years old. Mary Kate noticed an angel ornament on the tree and remembered the story her mother had told her (although, she no longer remembered the sightings themselves, typically what happens as children get older). Mary Kate asked her little cousin if she knew what the ornament was and Thea told her it was an angel. Then, Mary Kate asked her cousin how many angels she had. "I have two," Thea replied matter-of-factly.

Three preschoolers, three different times, and three different situations, but all yielded the same answer.

Kathleen knows that I circulate stories of children who seem to be genuinely in touch with heaven, involved with angels or saints, because we can learn much from their early experiences and their innocence. I have heard small children describe great congregations of angels but not a specific number.

"I have never read anything that might support the opinion of these three beautiful babies who seemed so confident God has assigned two angels to accompany us," Kathleen writes. Have you?

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