Angels: Blogging from A to Z

I believe in angels.

I believe that we all lived before we were born, not as men and women with physical bodies, but as the spirit children of God, our Heavenly Father. At the end of this life, I believe that we will each leave our mortal body behind, and return as spirits to our Heavenly Father, someday to again receive our body in a glorified, immortal state, all because of the resurrection and atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I also believe that at times, we are surrounded by and attended to by angels, the spirits of friends and family who have either gone on before or maybe even those who are still awaiting their turn at earth life. The scriptures tell that Jesus Christ was ministered to by angels. They were present at the time of his birth. They succored him after the temptations of Satan as he was fasting in the wilderness. They attended to him during the atonement, when his disciples were not able to. Generally we are not able to see these angels. I know that I never have, but I have felt their presence and comfort.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called the LDS Church or the Mormon Church. One of our books of scripture is The Doctrine and Covenants, a collection of divine revelations received through Joseph Smith Jr., the first prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, In D&C 84:88 we are promised that as we go about doing what we should be doing, we will have angels round about us to bear us up. I believe that those of our loved ones who have gone on to the next world before us are still able to be aware of our lives and situations:

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:88

As a member of the LDS Church, I often visit one of our temples, which are different from the buildings where we attend our regular Sunday worship services. In the temple, worthy members of the church are taught gospel principles, make sacred covenants, and are promised blessings. The temple is a place where I feel especially close to heaven, and have sometimes felt the presence of angels around me. One day a while back when I was sitting in the temple chapel listening to the organ; this phrase from the hymn being played struck me and has stayed in my mind for several days:

"Oh, know you not that angels are near you
 From brightest mansions above?"
(Come unto Jesus, Text and music: Orson Pratt Huish, 1851-193)

To me it is very comforting to think of others watching over and cheering us on from the other side.  The first experience that I ever had with having a loved one pass from this life into the next was when I was just ten years old and my cousin and his new wife were killed in a car accident. I still remember the shock I felt when we received the news, and the unbelief that someone that I had known and loved had died. Since then, I have experienced the deaths of my grandparents and many other loved ones and friends. I am blessed to still have both of my parents nearby and relatively healthy, along with all of my siblings and their families. Though five of my six children are now adults, I still think of myself as young and inexperienced, and so it still surprises and shocks me when someone I know well passes away, especially those who are near my own age or younger. But it is happening on a more frequent basis.

Not too long ago I attended the funeral service for one of my friends and neighbors who has been a great example and mentor to me. She was a counselor to me in what was probably my most difficult calling so far in my life. During her service those who spoke gave tributes to her and testimonies that she is in a better place, freed from the bondage of the illness of her mortal body, and that she has been called to continue her work on the other side of the veil that separates us from heaven. Later that week the strongest reassurance came over me that she has joined the ranks of the angels that are watching over me and cheering for me from the other side. Of course I know that she has many other more important tasks than just cheering me on, but it is a comfort to know that as my life moves forward, and more and more of my friends and loved ones move on to the other side, and my band of guardian angels or my cheering section is only increasing in size. It is just one more bit of comfort to give me faith and courage to continue on when times are hard.

In the words of a current, latter day Apostle of Jesus Christ:

My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. Nor will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.  On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.


Elder Jeffery R. Holland, The Ministry of Angels
October 2008