WHEN I ENTERED my sister’s house for my usual babysitting night, Tessa ran into the kitchen, crashed into my legs, and gave me a big squeeze. She turned her head up for me to kiss her, which I did.
“I missed you, Livvy,” Tessa squeaked.
“I missed you, too, squirt.” Diane had been sick last Thursday, so we’d missed a week.
My sister came down the stairs, wearing a red dress and matching heels. “Hey, Liv, how are you?”
“OK.”
I wished I could share what I was going through with her. But since she was so much older than me, we weren’t close enough for me to broach such an off-the-wall subject. I didn’t know how she’d react.
After Diane and Brian left, Tessa took me to her bedroom to show me her latest sketches. My niece’s crayon drawings were really lifelike. Sometimes she drew with pencil.
Tessa pointed to her newest picture, hanging on her pegboard. “It’s Petey.”
Sure enough, there was no mistaking Petey. “That’s fantastic.”
Tessa gave me her widest, toothless grin.
My eyes wandered over the other pictures hanging on her wall. One was of a zebra, one was a tree, and one was of her parents. I was stunned at the detail of their faces.
Suddenly an idea popped into my mind. “Can you draw an angel for me?”
I expected her to respond eagerly to my request, as she usually did when I asked her to draw something for me. Instead, she shuffled her colored pencils in her hands. Her smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown. “The last one I saw scared me.”
Oh, no. Not Tessa. It was hard enough for me.
“I’m sorry, Tessa. Could you try just a quick sketch—if you want?”
I felt selfish asking her to do this just to further convince me I wasn’t crazy. But I wanted to make sure I could explain it to her and help calm her fears. Maybe even teach her what I’d learned.
Tessa stared at the floor and then looked up at me. “OK. But can we throw it in the trash can after I finish?”
“Deal.” I’m almost afraid to see this.
I sat on the floor and watched Tessa draw, using only her black pencil.
As her hand flowed over the paper, she drew a cloaked figure with hollowed-out eyes, much like some of the demons I’d encountered lately.
“That’s really good, Tess.”
No smile. “Can we throw it out now?” Without even waiting for me to respond, Tessa crumpled the paper in her chubby little hands and headed toward the waste basket.
“Tess? Are you afraid?”
“Y-yes.” She then chewed on her pencil eraser, staring past me as if deep in thought.
“Don’t be scared. Your angel is bigger and stronger than any of the scary angels.”
She looked back up at me and seemed to be digesting my comment.
“Do you believe me?” I asked.
She nodded.
“If you ever see one again, you pray and ask God for your angel to kill him, you hear me?”
She smiled thinly, then bobbed her head up and down, curls bouncing.
“Can we play now?”
“Let’s play house.”
I resisted the urge to suggest she draw a nice angel. “Sure. You be the mommy.” I hopped onto her bed and stuck my thumb in my mouth and whimpered like a baby. Tessa chuckled and came over to stroke my hair.
That broke the ice after our gloomy exchange.
After playing house and hide-and-seek, we made paper boats and hats and then watched some TV. At eight we headed to Tessa’s bedroom, where I followed her nightly ritual: a drink of water we brought up from the kitchen, then a story, and a hug.
“I’ll pray tonight.” I’d had a little practice lately, so it didn’t seem so uncomfortable anymore. I crawled into bed beside her and pulled the covers up to my waist.
“How come? You never pray.”
“Well, I guess I’ve been doing it more lately, so I’m more comfortable doing it out loud.”
“That’s good, Livvy. You shouldn’t be shy about it.”
She reached over and grabbed my hand and squeezed it as if offering her assurance that I should speak right up. I stared up at the dark ceiling.
I decided I’d add my own prayer before reciting Tessa’s usual prayer. “Dear God, thank You for this day and the time tonight with Tessa. I ask You to protect her from the scary angel, and help her see the nice ones.” Then I began the usual recitation, “As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I ask the Lord my soul to take. God, bless Tessa, her mommy and daddy, Petey, and—”
I spotted a glowing figure with the outline of a man to the right of Tessa’s bed. The covers rustled as she turned in my direction. “Tessa? Is that him?”
“He’s here!” Tessa sat up and clapped her hands, gazing at the glowing figure that now sharpened into an unmistakable angel.
“He sure is.”
“You see him too?”
“Yes. He’s beautiful. You’re safe, sweetheart.”
“Daniel, this is my Aunt Olivia,” she said with such ease you’d have thought she’d just introduced me to one of her friends from school. Well, they’ve obviously talked together if she knows his name.
I stood to my feet. Do I put my hand out for him to shake it? He looked transparent, so I held back.
I tilted my head, cleared my throat, and said, “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” I hoped that sounded respectful. I hadn’t chatted with any angel as much as with Mike, but I didn’t want to assume I could be so laid back with another one.
Tessa jumped up and down and giggled. We all joined in.
“Hi, my sweet Tessa.” And at that moment his body turned solid. From hearing his laughter I could tell her angel had a very high-pitched voice—almost childlike. He appeared to be younger than Mike. I guessed him to be around fourteen or so. He was dressed in a white peasant shirt with black, billowing pants that covered his feet. His shoulder-length hair was the same blonde as Tessa’s, with springy curls to match. One unruly curl dangled between his two emerald-green eyes. He brushed it aside and held out his hand to Tessa, who in turn ran and hugged him around his knees instead, like an old friend.
Mesmerized by this sight, I found myself speechless. Daniel saved me. “Nice to meet you, Olivia. It seems you and Tessa share a gift.” He offered his hand, and I shook it. “It’s quite common for it to run in families.”
I finally found my voice. “R-really? D-do you know an angel named Mike?”
His smile broadened, showing the most perfectly white teeth I’d ever seen, which were all the more accentuated by his tan skin. “Why, yes, my friend Mike has told me so much about you.”
Does that mean he told him good things? I always wondered when I heard that phrase. Obviously reading my thoughts, he added, “And yes, it’s all good things.”
What do I say to him? Then it came to me. “Thanks for watching over Tessa.”
He bowed at the waist and waved his arm in front of him with a flourish. “My pleasure entirely.” When he straightened, I faked a curtsy in return. He laughed lightly. I instantly felt at ease.
I heard the pitter-patter of Tessa’s bare feet on the floor as she walked to her closet and pulled out an envelope, then handed it to Daniel. “I made this for you.”
Daniel gasped in surprise and bent at the knees so he could look into Tessa’s eyes. “My, I feel honored.”
“Open it, open it!”
Daniel carefully removed the contents of the envelope. A piece of sketch paper appeared, folded like a letter. On the top was scrawled to Daniel. Below she had drawn large, puffy clouds, with a rainbow arching over them. On the cloud sat what was obviously Daniel, a crayon Daniel, to be exact. She drew him with wings, even though I had not yet seen them. Must be he appears to her that way sometimes—and maybe so she knows he’s an angel. She had drawn him with the same clothes he had on tonight.
With the drawing still in his hand he enveloped Tessa with his willowy arms. “Thank you, Tess; I’ll hang this on my harp.”
Angels really have harps? Eh, why not? I guess they don’t have refrigerators to hang artwork on.
“Now, you two go to bed. We don’t want you falling asleep in school tomorrow, little girl.”
“OK!” Tessa skipped around the bed to her side and dove under the covers.
“Well, it was nice meeting you.” I then turned, expecting Tessa to say something. When I turned back around Daniel was gone.
“He does that sometimes,” she said matter-of-factly. Mike did that too, so I chuckled to myself. Then she said, “Good night, Daniel,” into the air of the room.
“I hope I can meet your angel friend, Mike, sometime.”
“Me too!”
I tucked her in, turned on the nightlight, turned off the overhead lamp, and closed the door. Then I went downstairs and poked around the kitchen for something to eat.
As I settled in to watch one of my favorite TV shows, I heard Tessa crying in her bedroom. Then she screamed, “Livvy!”
I bounded up the stairs. Oh, no, not a demon. When I opened the door, the walls were covered in flies. Tessa was surrounded by them. She swatted at them with tears running down her reddened face.
“God, send Your angel.” I said it out loud for Tessa’s sake. She had to learn what I was learning.
Suddenly Daniel appeared, and blowing one long, hard breath, he dissipated the flies as if he were blowing a scattered pile of sugar off a table surface. Once they were all gone I sat on the bed and pulled Tessa into my arms. She hiccupped a few sniffles as she calmed down.
“You saw the flies, didn’t you, Liv?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad.”
I crawled into bed beside her and promised to stay there until she fell asleep. I sang one of her favorite Sunday school songs. Her breathing slowed as I sang.
“Mommy and Daddy told me I shouldn’t keep mentioning angels. They said people would think I’m crazy. So I stopped. But then I didn’t see my nice angel as often. A mean one came by a couple times. I didn’t like him.”
She turned on her side to face me. “What were the flies here for, Livvy?”
“Just to scare you. Sometimes the devil’s little helpers do that kind of thing.”
“I’ve heard about the devil in Sunday school. But they don’t talk about nice angels that help you.”
“What did you do when you saw the mean angel before? Were there flies then?”
“No. When I saw him I ran out of my room and slept with Mommy and Daddy. The next time I got Petey to sleep with me. But he kept growling, so I couldn’t sleep very well.”
“Did the bad angel do anything to you?”
“No. My nice angel kept him from hurting me, like tonight. Hey, how do you know an angel named Mike—the one you asked Daniel about?”
“I see angels too. All the time.”
Her eyes widened. “Mean ones or nice ones?”
“Both.”
“What do you do when you see the mean ones?”
“I ask God to send his nice angels to rescue me. And I pray out loud, telling the mean ones that I’m a child of God, covered by the blood shed during Christ’s death on the cross.”
Tessa tilted her head and looked into my eyes. “Are you borned again?”
“You mean ‘born again’?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard about that in Sunday school. I want to be that. You are too, right? I saw how you prayed so bravely tonight both times. I knew you had to be. I want to be able to pray like that and tell the bad angels to go away!”
I smiled at Tessa’s precious attempt to express her heart’s desire.
Tessa was too young to understand a whole lot. But Jesus said He wants people to come to Him like little children.
I opened the Bible storybook on her bedside bookshelf and read her the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. I was certain she’d heard it in Sunday school, but it seemed to be appropriate tonight.
“That was better than any other story you’ve ever read me.” Tessa squeezed her eyes shut and folded her hands. “Jesus, I want to be a Christian like Livvy. I want to be Your best friend.”
What she said was so simple, yet so beautiful, I wanted to cry.
Brightly colored lights and little sparks darted all over the room as angels rejoiced over Tessa’s prayer.
Tessa’s face brightened as she watched the little lights dancing around.
I looked up and breathed a prayer of thanks.
We both fell asleep on her bed, and my sister touched me softly on the shoulder when she got home. I slipped quietly from beneath the covers, trying not to disturb Tessa, and went downstairs. Diane and I sat at the kitchen table to have a cup of tea.
Brian poked his head into the kitchen. “Good night, you two.”
“Night,” we replied in unison.
“So how did Tessa do tonight?”
“Well . . . ”
Should I just blurt it out? Why not? Won’t Diane be pleased?
“Tessa told me she wanted to become a Christian. So I prayed with her.”
Diane walked around the table and threw her arms around me.
“Thanks, Sis.”
I was relieved that my sister wasn’t upset that I’d had the privilege of witnessing this important step in her daughter’s life. I hoped she didn’t feel I’d robbed her of that moment with Tessa. But after the funeral and all, I guess I felt “now is the best time.”
She danced a little jig in the middle of the kitchen and then stopped.
“I have to tell Brian right away!” She walked over and hugged me again.
“I’ll skip the tea tonight. I’ve got some homework.”
“No problem. Thanks for babysitting.” She gave me a peck on the cheek, then turned and ran to the stairs and up to her bedroom.
By the time I got home I realized my cheeks were aching from grinning the whole way home. I’d led my first person to the Lord. I’d met another angel tonight, done spiritual warfare, and I was in one piece. It was exhilarating.
Then it hit me. Now Tessa was a target like me.
Lord, help me be a good teacher for Tessa. Thank You for her salvation. Help me to be there for her when the warfare rages.
As I was getting dressed for school the next day, Diane called me on my cell.
“Hey, Liv. I found some disturbing pictures in Tessa’s trash can this morning. Do you know anything about them?”
“Uh, yeah.” I hesitated, wondering how much I should say. “Diane, Tessa sees angels—good and bad ones.”
“She’s told us that before.”
“I do too.”
“Really?”
From her skeptical tone of voice, I could tell she thought I was crazy.
Great.
“I’m worried that Tessa will be like our cousin Kathryn, who hears voices and stuff.”
“I thought I was crazy at first. But I’m not.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“Mom made me see a psychologist.” I hope she doesn’t send Tessa to one.
“I could see Mom doing that.”
“Yeah, it was really embarrassing having to see a doctor.”
“What did he say?”
“Well, after interviewing me a few times, he convinced Mom that I wasn’t crazy. Trust me, I prayed a lot.”
“So you really think she is seeing angels?”
“Yes, Diane, it’s not her imagination. I know the church we grew up in didn’t talk much about the gift of discernment of spirits. But I promise to help her. Most people who have that spiritual gift think they’re crazy. I don’t want Tessa to grow up thinking that.”
“Thank you, Liv—for everything.”
“Oh my gosh, I have to call Kathryn and ask her if she sees angels!”
“Yes, you should!”
“I’ll call her today after school.”