Entertaining Angels

"Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it".
Hebrews 13:2 New International Version

In my growing up years my mother, Rebecca, have always told me about stories of angels which she heard and experienced in her life. Which was why she has been entertaining visitors who were in need in our home. At times I question her on that, but I saw how she treated this visitors with her kindness and saw how big her heart was.

I was fascinated by it and often wondered who are they?, what do they look like?. Not until I did entertained one, actually, they were two!

One hot summer time in Manila, I was eleven or twelve years old. Mom and Dad would leave for work as early as six in the morning because of Mom's work. That day, Mom had a day off and so Dad was getting ready to leave at seven o'clock in the morning. I remember Dad was really in a hurry to get all his important work papers, and placed them all in his "attache case".

One bad habit my Dad does, was he likes to place his "attache case" on the top of his car while fixing the inside of the car and then places it inside the car. I don't understand why he can't just put it inside the car right away!

Dad did his usual thing that day. We all said good-bye to him inside the house and he drove off. Two hours later, dad called home and asked if we saw his attache case. All of us said that we saw him carrying out of the house. Then he told us that it was missing. He had the important papers from his work but he said "there are no identifications inside that bag, no cash, no business cards". That means, whoever sees that bag wouldn't know who owns it. One possibility is that the documents had the business header of where Dad works, but not his name. Dad's voice was really sad.

Mom gathered us in the house to say a prayer for Dad and that God would work a miracle for Dad to find it.

By lunch time I saw a mother and her son standing by our front yard gate. I decided to go outside and ask what do they needed. The woman asked if a man named Juan Gallego lives in this house. I said yes that is my Dad. The woman held in her hand a black attache case and said "I believe your father dropped this on the road". I was surpised and asked her "where did you found it?". The woman pointed her finger "way out there....it is far from your home". So, the next question I asked her was "so how did you know the owner of that bag lives here?". She was quick to respond, "there is a card inside with your Dad's home address, check the bag if something is missing."

She handed to me the attache case and I opened it in front of her and her son, it took me less than a minute to check Dad's bag because he told us already that there was nothing there to show his identity, only the business header of his job. I saw the header but no name of Dad, so I looked up to tell the woman "thank you" and possible of asking mom if they can have lunch with us but both woman and son were no where in sight!

We live in a very long, quiet street in the neighborhood and no type of transportation on sight, so if they walked I would have seen them but no two figures did I see walking.

And Dad was right, we took out all the documents in that attache case and not a single business card of Dad was there. Mom called Dad and told him the story. Mom calls them "angels".

The "Letter to the Hebrews- Revised Edition" by William Barclay has stated this about Hebrews 13:2,

"In the ancient world there was a rather wonderful system of what were called guests friendships. Throughout the years families, even when they had lost active touch with each, had an arrangement that at any time needful they would make accommodation available for each other...
This hospitality was even more necessary in the circle of Christians...wandering preachers and prophets were always on the road...
Christianity was, and still should be, the religion of the open door."


Question: Would you like to have that religion of the open door?