Experiences With Angels

All of my life I had heard, read and sang about angels, not really giving a lot of thought to or about them. Just before my mother passed away in August of 1984 she told me of her wonderful experience of a visit from an angel. After talking with Mom there was no doubt in either of our minds that this was a real experience, Mom passed away shortly after that.

Recently I have wondered how many times in my life have I been unknowingly in the presence of, protected by or attended to by one or more angels.

At once I was drawn back to Korea and the beginning of the winter of 1951. We were well north of the 38th parallel, and the summer had been very hot, well over a hundred degrees at times. We knew that the winter could get from thirty to sixty degrees below zero. But God gave us wonderful bodies that can adapt to situations, more so than I ever imagined.

Let me give you a little background on my physical condition. I went to Fort Knox weighing two hundred and thirty-five pounds. At 6' 1" I was in pretty good physical condition because of playing a lot of sports, working out and physical labor. The weather was very cold during basic training and at times we were training in as much as nineteen below zero weather. At the end of my basic training I weighed two hundred fifteen pounds. After a ten-day furlough I was flown to Japan, then to Korea to join my outfit, the 185th Combat Engineers, for the spring offense. That evening we were trapped behind enemy lines. By early winter I weighed one hundred and ninety pounds.

In late fall or early winter a supply of winter clothing was sent to us, but as the clothing made its way up to my outfit, soldiers were supplying themselves. The only thing that I received to wear that would fit me was a sweater and a pair of glove shells for my hands. As winter came on, my body was able to adapt quite a bit to the cold except for some frostbite on my fingers.

One cold day I was near a road when I heard a jeep coming, I went to the road and was standing there when a Lieutenant pulled up driving a jeep. He stopped by me and asked, soldier where is your winter clothing? I told him that there wasn't anything I could wear by the time the clothing had reached my outfit. He told me to get in the jeep, and he took me back to several different Headquarters Companies. At each stop he got me something to wear. When he was finished I had a complete outfit consisting of snowpac boots, winter parka, gloves, hat and even new socks. The Lieutenant drove me back to the same place that he had picked me up and dropped me off. He said "good luck soldier" and drove off. For some reason there weren't any names mentioned except Lieutenant and soldier. I have never forgotten that day.

Later when I was home and able to reflect on it, I asked myself several questions about the event that I can't answer.

A few of the questions are as follows:

Did God send an angel to attend and help me?

Did God just send another soldier to help me?

Where did he come from?

Why was an officer driving his own jeep?

How did he know where to go for each piece of clothing?

Why did he drive off going further north into enemy territory?

Why weren't there any names exchanged?

Fifty years later I wish that I had asked him some of these questions or maybe I wasn't supposed to.

More articles from Bruce Cook can be found at http://www.avidchristian.com which contains Christian music and book reviews, articles and other Christian products.

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