Annie’s angel sat on top of the car, her chin in her hands. This wasn’t working, and she had run out of ideas. Slowly she flew up into heaven. She was scuffing her feet as she walked through the gateway. One of the archangels was leaning on the gate when she walked through.
Annie’s angel had always been a favorite of all the angels, and they all knew what she was trying to do with Annie’s family. No one had tried that before. Not one angel had ever thought anyone would ever listen. People were a real puzzle to the angels, and the best the guardian angels usually hoped for was just to keep their people safe and happy during their time on earth. So, for this little angel to have tried not only to change the way a family looked at death, but to change the way a whole town saw a tragedy, then she certainly deserved a little time from an archangel.
“Why the long face?” he asked Annie’s angel. He always hung around the gate, and Annie’s angel hadn’t noticed him when she had entered.“My plan didn’t work. I had thought that I could make things a little easier for Annie’s family…” Her voice drifted off, and the elder angel smiled.
“You thought you could make a family forget about the loss of their child by giving them a ‘little’ miracle, right?”
“Y-yes,” she stuttered. “I really did think that I could help them.”
He smiled at the little angel, “You did make things better, you just haven’t given them enough time. They still have to grieve, you know. They lost their precious daughter, you can’t make that part better. What you did was give them something to believe in, and that was a gift. They will realize that, little one, but they still have to cry, and be angry, and do all those things to slowly deal with their loss. Give them time. The miracle will rub off on them and the whole town, for that matter, but that doesn’t mean that they still won’t have sad moments. You do them a great disservice by trying to take that away from them. There are steps in grieving, and they all have to go through those steps.”
“B-but Tom doesn’t think he will ever laugh, again. I heard him think that. I can’t let that happen. It will make Annie so unhappy!”“Little one, they lost a child and a sister, let them be sad. You gave them something to make them smile. You gave them something to think about, to believe, and perhaps, something to comfort them. Now, let the miracle happen. Be patient. Have a little faith of your own!”
Annie’s angel had stopped crying as the archangel spoke. He was right, she had forgotten how death made people sad. She only thought about how wonderful heaven was. She tried not to think about “people” too often, but when she had been given the job as Annie’s guardian angel, she had been so excited, and then she had made her first mistake, she hadn’t just looked upon Annie as a “job,” but she had fallen in love with Annie as well as her family. Guardian angels are always there for their people. Oh, the people never knew it, unless they were really special, but the angels were always there. Always watching, always caring, always protecting. She had forgotten, they were only human. All she had to do was be patient. As long as she was here, she would go and see Annie. She found Annie along Siris Street, dancing with some cherubs. Annie saw her and ran towards her laughing.
“Hi!” Annie laughed. Her questions came out very quickly. “How is my family? Are they OK.? Did you think of some way to make them smile? Can you stay and play?”Annie’s angel smiled. She had forgotten how bright Annie’s smile was. No wonder they miss her so much on earth, she is so precious…Annie’s angel would have to be patient and remember how humans were and how much they loved their children. She would let them remember and grieve, and with a little luck, the people would understand.
Annie’s angel smiled at Annie. “I can stay for a little while.” They ran off together hand in hand, as the little angel described the snow angels to Annie. Annie’s laughter rang through the streets of heaven. The archangel smiled after their running figures. Things would be all right, he just knew it. The next part of this miracle would come from Annie herself. He wasn’t sure if she knew about that, yet, but he knew she had the biggest job ahead of her stillconvincing her family that she was fine and that there was more, much more than they had ever imagined could possible exist in this world or the next!