“In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.”
Psalm 18:6 (NIV)
There are times when God sends a human being, who responds to our cries of frustration at the most needed time. That person may think they are just doing their job, or offering the least they can do to help, but it means the world to the person they are helping. That would be the definition of an earth angel, which is a term I first heard from a resident at the Nursing home.
I encountered my own earth angel this week, when I recently applied for a new Cook County property tax relief fund, which is offered to residents whose property taxes increased 50% or more. It gives a resident the chance to receive $1,000 toward their property tax bill. After applying for the tax relief fund, I was invited to the second phase of the application process.
Everything was going smoothly as I answered the questions and submitted the documents, but then I received a response that the proof of residency submitted was older than 30 days. I quickly sent a more recent utility bill, but received the same robotic type response as if they never received the updated one. The only phone number given to ask questions, was one that only permits a voicemail with no option to speak to an actual human being.
After leaving two voicemails with no answer, I muttered under my breath to the Lord that this whole process seemed hopeless, with no way to speak to a living person.
I was in a mindset to give up and after dozing off on the couch at 4 pm in the afternoon, I was awoken by a phone call from Cook County.
A very kind, polite lady told me that I submitted the utility bill under the wrong section, so it could not be used as proof of residency. She explained that I needed to submit it to the right section to prove my residency.
She was patient and kind enough to stay on the phone with me as I resubmitted the utility bill to the correct part of the application. She waited and confirmed that all was good and her gentle voice was so reassuring. It was like speaking to an angel instead of a cold, disinterested government employee. I thanked God for hearing me and sending me an earth angel.
Sometimes we face problems that get so frustrating, we feel ready to give up, but God sees our distress and our words come straight to His ears, as today’s Psalm describes.
He sends compassionate human beings to meet our need. They think they are simply doing their job, but for the one who is helped, it means everything.
I heard a true story this week of two young men who left their troubled countries in the Mideast, to seek asylum here. A teenager from Egypt who is a Coptic Christian came here seeking freedom of religion. He speaks only Arabic and after locating a Coptic Arabic church in a nearby suburb, he longed to go to church, but he had no driver’s license or car.
The other young man was from Jordan, and he also spoke only Arabic, but he had a car and a driver’s license. He offered to take him to church. It may not sound like an unusual story, but the interesting thing is that the man from Jordan, who drove him to church, was a Moslem.
It’s a story of showing a simple act of kindness to someone who is not within a group that one would most relate to.
It’s heartwarming to see kindness shown by a person from one faith, to help a person of an opposite faith, by driving them to their house of worship. I would call that man an earth angel.
God hears our cries, and He sends individuals to help another individual experience His lovingkindness. The grace of God sees people for who they are, not based on their title, label or their group identity. Earth angels imitate that grace, not living in an “us verses them” mentality, but only seeking to show the love and kindness of God as they know it. Earth angels treat each person with human dignity.
Lord, inspire everyone to spread peace in the world by imitating your grace, treating individuals with dignity, instead of thinking in labels or groups. Help us to be the earth angels you send to others. Amen
