Do Guardian Angels Get Paid Overtime?

“For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Psalms 91: 11-12

If they don’t, they should. I recently had the opportunity to do “playground duty” at my two oldest children’s school. Allow me to describe the scene as best I can:

At least 50 kids (grades k-6) all running around the same small patch of black top for 30 minutes. Two simultaneous football games being played in the very middle of the parking lot (using the same boundaries and end zones), often overlapping kick-offs, passes, etc. Several kids playing basketball on one or more of the three basketball hoops set-up on the perimeter. Some kids just running around chasing one another or laughing. A whole group of girls playing with jump ropes—and by playing I do not mean “jumping” with them, I mean swinging them around in a circle at eye level while the other girls tried to duck or jump out of the way.  Other girls had a line of at least 8 girls jumping on the same rope along one of the football sidelines. And then there were random kids just kicking or throwing soccer balls, footballs, basketballs or volleyballs as hard as they could in any direction with no target in particular.

I saw at least fifteen (I stopped counting at this point) near misses of balls hitting kids in the heads or eyes, a few kids hit by balls that bounced off of them with the same effect a breeze would’ve had on them, a couple kids trip and get right back up with nary a scrape and plenty of other bumps, falls, and bodies crashing into one another. In my opinion it is a miracle everyone survived. And they do this every school day!

And then it hit me—as I looked at the organized chaos of kids running around me with my eyes, in my mind’s eye I began to visualize their guardian angels chasing after them, batting balls out of the way, stopping them right before a crash, picking them up after a fall they cushioned, or re-directing the flight path of a football so that it missed the child under their watch. In my imagination I could see them breathing heavy and sweating (if angels could). And I had to smile as I thought of them beseeching God to bring recess to an end so they could go back to floating over the kids while they sat quietly in class.

Then I began thinking about how grateful I am for my guardian angel and how we should be more appreciative of all that they do for us. And thankful to God for loving us so much to give each of us our own personal protector to watch over us and keep us from harm. May we seek to know our guardian angels and begin to recognize their workings in our lives.

Dear Jesus, thank you for my guardian angel. May I always be filled with gratitude for the concern You have for MY life and well-being. And help never to take my guardian angel for granted. Amen.