No sooner had my head touched the pillow than an undefined anxiousness filled the pit of my stomach. My mind, refusing to shut down, lit up like a noisy amusement park.  Lol! Or was it my crazy mind darting here, there and everywhere that precipitated the physical sensation of restlessness? Ugh!

Who cares? What matters is that I must get some rest. It’s not like I can sleep in tomorrow. I’ve got a full day ahead! So, I focused on slow, deliberate deep breaths, I pictured peaceful green fields and I commanded my mind to stop racing.  I systematically relaxed each body part, one by one from top to bottom. I envisioned myself sleeping peacefully. I prayed for sleep. To no avail.

Not happening. Nothing’s working. Crap! I do NOT need a sleepless night at this time!

The unsuccessful attempt to force sleep upon my tired body further fueled my overactive mind with a string of unrelated thoughts. Okay fine! I’ve tried everything else, it’s time to go with the flow. Why am I fighting this?

So I lay there and succumbed to the moment … gave my mind permission to have its way with me. And it did!

It led me to a memory from years ago. One that surfaces periodically.  When it does, I sense a strong nudge to write about what happened, but I’ve always managed to ignore the bidding.  Tonight, it was more than a nudge. It was insistent and persistent … and I knew it. There would be no sleep until I transfer the words out of my head and into this blog.

So I got up with an obedient heart and here I am!  2:50 a.m.

So be it! “You will write”, said the prophet. “No matter the time of day or night, hear the call and write. Don’t worry about sleep, write down your thoughts!  There’s a writer in you.  Express your emotions, describe your experiences … about family, about life … you’ve got important stories to tell.  Share them!” 

But why now? Why tonight? I have no idea why I’m supposed to write this particular story. Here’s the thing I’ve learned about life! It’s not for me to analyze, or question the timing or even the reason. It’s only for me to share the events. So here goes.

Here’s an account of what happened.

In the midst of a very trying period of spiritual attack on our family some years ago, something happened that forced me to cancel my flight to England where I was to visit my folks. If you’re rolling your eyes around right now in reference to “spiritual attack” and its implications, just wait … it gets better … or worse … depending on your train of thought.

By the way, I hope that you’re a spiritual individual. I hope you believe in God and His goodness, His faithfulness, His constancy, His love, His almighty power.  I hope you are open to the existence of the spiritual realm of good and evil forces. As a long-time Christian, I was aware of them, but I hadn’t given such things a great deal of thought. That is until I encountered their manifestations in a succession of events.

This is just one such encounter in a string of several related occurrences. During this challenging time, many friends and our church congregation prayed for protection for our family. At the time of this one this particular episode I was most concerned for my parents welfare, especially since I’d been forced to postpone my trip due to unavoidable circumstances that required my full attention.

But then came the phone call.

My parents were both on the telephone. They called unusually early for them and they spoke so hurriedly and breathlessly that I was intrigued.

It turns out that at roughly 1:00 am GMT, they were awakened from a deep sleep. Their bedroom window was rattling loudly and vigorously from something right outside the glass. Simultaneously, a blinding bright light shone into their bedroom, almost like a search light. 

My Dad pulled back the curtain to see what was going on. He recalled that initially, it sounded like a helicopter … with the whirring and whirling of its rotating blades … but it wasn’t. The light was brilliant so he couldn’t see what it was, but he was adamant it was not a helicopter. I can pretty much agree on that since it would have been almost impossible for one to get that close to the house without taking out trees or structures and leaving a trail of evidence.

I questioned them further.  You have to understand that my Dad is a no-nonsense kind of a guy with an analytical mind and he certainly isn’t one to dream up stories about fantasy or fairy tales. No not MY Dad. He knew there was a logical explanation and he lay awake exploring the possibilities of what it could have been. In the morning he visited the neighbors around them. Surely they had heard or witnessed the commotion from the night before.

Alas, no one had been disturbed and there was no trace of anything. No evidence that anything unusual had happened. Nothing at the window, or in the garden below. Did they both dream it? Highly unlikely since they were wide awake within seconds and both witnessed the very same thing. Whatever it was, it left my Dad puzzled and to this day the whole occurrence remains an inexplicable mystery.

Or does it?

Perhaps the way in which my mother described what she saw, heard and felt, provided me with the most convincing evidence as to what I think they experienced. Here’s her description.

“The window was shaking and rattling loudly and a piercing bright light was shining through the window lighting up the entire bedroom. Dad pulled back the curtain but we couldn’t see what it was.  It definitely was not a helicopter or any mechanical contraption.  The noise was very loud, it sounded like a large flock of birds flapping their wings so fiercely that the draft resounded against the window, causing the glass to vibrate.”

I asked Mum if she was afraid. She said brightly “No, not at all!!”

I find that quite astounding. Something as unusual and as powerful and as inexplicable as what they both saw and heard? And neither were fearful? And both gave the same vivid descriptions of sight and sound?

So this is what I concluded at the time.  I thought it in my mind and I felt it in my heart. I believe it to this day. I think God is good. In fact I believe He is AMAZING! He found a way to protect my folks AND at the same time send a powerful message to us in California that all was well, that He had my parents in the palm of His hand.

Protection from God’s finest. A mighty mystical message. Angels? It’s possible … and according to scripture some do have sets of wings and they have been known to shine brilliant light. A spiritual manifestation conveying a message? We’ll never know for sure, but here’s what I do know and believe without any shadow of a doubt.

Prayer is powerful. Our God is a mighty God. With Him nothing is impossible. Good things come on the wings of a prayer.    

You can draw your own conclusions!  I’m merely the messenger.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your way  and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9