Several nights ago I decided to make bread before bed.
I quickly threw together a batch of bread, confident that I knew the recipe off the top of my head, and stuck it in the bread maker. I turned the machine onto its longest setting and went upstairs to get ready for bed, intending for the bread to cook while I was alseep. Jon came up shortly after and we watched a movie together. After the movie was over we sat in bed and chatted for awhile. Then I heard a strange noise downstairs. It sounded like someone was rustling the blinds.
“Did you hear that?” I asked Jon.
He quieted down and we listened, but couldn’t hear anything.
“I just thought I heard something downstairs.”
“Must have been the bread machine.”
“Yeah, must have been.”
Jon went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. I was laying in bed with our door open and I heard the hall floor squeak. I sat up thinking that it was Jon coming back into the room, but when I looked there was no one there. I listened and could hear that Jon was still in the bathroom. “Strange,” I thought to myself. The floor had squeaked just like it does when someone was walking on it, but there was no one there.
Not long after Jon came back in and with a strange look on his face asked, “Was that you in the hall?”
“No, I have been laying right here the whole time. But you heard that too?”
“Yeah, someone walked down the hall.”
“I heard it, but I figured it must have been you in the bathroom.”
We both got the chills.
Not only had we heard something in the hall but we could both feel that there was most certainly someone else in our house.
Me, being the brave soul that I am climbed further under the covers and sent Jon to investigate. He turned on the hall light and slowly started down the stairs, even calling out a tentative, “Hello? Who is there?”
As he progressed down the stairs a thousand horrible possibilities flooded through my head.
“We haven’t gotten the locks changed yet, what if someone has a key.”
“What if they are a crazy uncle who is angry we bought the house.”
“What if Jon gets shot?”
“Where would I hide?”
“How would I keep the kids quiet?”
“Maybe we could climb out the window on to the porch….”
You know… nice, comforting, sane thoughts.
Then I heard, “Wow. Oh wow. Man. Wow” coming from down stairs and I was out of bed and down the stairs like a rocket.
“Jon, what happened? Are you okay? What is it. Did you find them?”
“Yeah, Heather. Everything is okay but look at this.”
He pointed to the bread machine, which had “walked” itself underneath the cupboard, and was pouring out a pillar of smoke. He opened it up and we saw that my hastily thrown together bread had risen too much and that the dough had overflowed in great quantities onto the heating element. Jon quickly pulled it out and doused the thing with water and then looked at me seriously, “This thing probably would have caught fire, it still has almost an hour and half left on the bake time. And being right underneath these cupboards it probably would have lit them right up. I wonder why the smoke alarm didn’t go off.”
“I know” I said. “I checked them today and replaced the batteries but I couldn’t get them to work. I was going to ask you to look at them when you got home… but I forgot.”
We watched the smoldering bread machine for awhile, feeling slight terror at our near escape, and then Jon said, “You know… there was someone in the hall. I felt them as I came down the stairs. I think we just had a visit from a guardian angel.”
The truth of those words rushed over us and brought us to our knees in gratitude.
There have been several times in my life when I have felt the presence of guardian angels. Yet, every time I see their influence in my life it humbles me to my core.
Who are they? What type of power and influence are they allowed to have? Can they rustle blinds and squeak old floors if needed? And how many
other small, seemingly insginficant, promptings and occurances in my
life are really whisperings from a divine being?
I really don’t know.
All I do know is that I am so grateful for the angel who walked our hall that night.
It was a ghost. Your house is haunted. Didn't the realtor tell you that? 🙂
You know, it can stay if it keeps up doing things like this! Maybe we have a Caspar, the friendly ghost 🙂
wow! so cool! well, not cool that you almost burnt your house down, but very cool that you were being watched over. i think it will be amazing when we are in the next life and we get to see just how much we were helped and who was doing the helping. i'm glad you are safely there and are all ok. your last post was amazing too. what a trial and adventure this last few weeks have been for you. i bet you are looking forward to a nice calm boring unpacking and settling in time. here's to a small break from adventures!
I love the emphasis that has been in conference lately, letting us know that there are people working on both sides of the veil to help us. You were saved and your family was saved. Love those testimony builders.
Side note: On the first night in the house that we live in now, our (then)6 year old son came in to our bedroom and told us that there was a man in his room. We told him that there wasn't and he retorted, "Yes, there is! I can tell he's a man, because he's wearing pants."
We weren't supposed to have moved in to the house yet– the family that we bought the house from finished packing a day early and gave us the keys. They had their widowed mother with Alzheimers living with them in what became my son's room. We kind of think that no one told Grandpa that Grandma was leaving and that he came to visit her. He's never been back.
That's our ghost story.
Ooh, I really like that one. What a sweet thought, that he had been visiting her all along!
Wow. Just wow. So glad you are OK. I felt like I had a similar angel recently when I left my baby in the car while on a date with my husband. Make sure you write that one in your journal!
This is just my opinion, but I think our guardian angels are family members who have passed on. I believe they love us and are watching over us. One time I was resting in the car, waiting for my young son. I fell asleep and then heard loud tapping on the window. I woke with a start and looked all around. There was no one around — not near the car and not anyone even in the parking lot. It was important that I wake up right at that time to go get my son. Since there was no human in sight, I think an angel must have tapped on the window to wake me up so that my little boy wasn't left wondering where his mother was. So, yes, I believe that angels can rustle blinds and squeak floor boards. You certainly were being watched over.
That is so neat. Thank you for sharing that. I too have sensed before that there are others around us who we can't see but we can sense, who are there to help watch over us. I think it's another way that Heavenly Father sends His love and protection to us while we're away from Him.
Wow. So glad you're all safe. Thank you, awesome heavenly visitor!
Ah, the subtleties of heavenly intervention! Just enough to get one of you to go investigate so that you would find the problem. I'm glad you are safe!
Given how important family is to our Father, my bet is our "guardian angels" are former/future family members.
Really enjoyed the read… You should get hubby to tell story in his words also..Just saying I love getting info.. I'm a Mattlock errrr!!
Thanks for sharing such a tender moment. What a special angel you have.