Angel By: Jimmy F. Ramos Is there no let up? What are you telling us? The questions kept popping in Eunice’s mind all week. The quake she’d felt seemed to live in her knees as she stepped into the church. She glanced at her watch as she slipped to a pew near the front. Almost an hour before the worship service, and the church was almost empty, just the music ministry practicing in their area in front and a couple shushing their three kids who played dodge in the wide aisle. Their voices rivaled the worship leader’s working the lines of Angel of the Lord. Surely, the Angel of the Lord Is around me. I have no cause to fear, My God will not forsake me. The lines triggered the file of news videos and audios in her mind. The drummer’s beating incited the rattle of rotor and machine guns, his bass drum the thumps of bombs. Lord, will the memories haunt me? Eyes closed, she started praying. Though she lived with her aunt just five blocks from the shooting and bombing during the MNLF siege of the city, no stray bullet nicked their roof and no rebel scuffled with soldiers in their street. Lord, thanks for keeping your promise to protect those who call on you for help. But just as the rebels, muffled by bombs and mortar shells, burst only in sparse and sporadic fires or surrendered, in came a storm unloading downpours that flooded barangays below sea level. Shacks on river banks swept with the rampaging flood; not all occupants escaped in time to flock in public schools. Safe in their second-story house, Eunice and her aunt watched on TV the wet victims, most carrying only what they wore, milling for food in evacuation centers. Thanks, Lord, for caring for us and sending packed meals to the evacuees. Days after, with evacuees still crowding the Grand Stand and spilling over the boulevard and even camping on its center islands, an earthquake shook the city. Not much in the city, but hardest hit were Bohol and Cebu in the Visayas where concrete highways cracked and gaped out, buildings and century-old churches fell and crumbled and sinkholes opened. Do you once again speak and we do not listen? Must you speak this way to catch our attention? As she prayed she sniffed a whiff of exquisite perfume and sensed a warm weight settle lightly beside her on the pew. But seconds later, the perch lightened up and Eunice opened her eyes to see a man in khaki slacks and white polo shirt bent forward, elbows on laps, praying. She continued praying for her classmates still in evacuation centers and without houses to go home to. Lord, talk to me today, through the sermon or your people. She finished just as the man slid back on his seat and said, “Our prayers must sound like the newscast today. Eunice, right? Call me Gabby.” “They never stray from Magandang Gabi, Bayan. I don’t think I’ve seen you before—except if I imagine Sam Milby deciding to grow his hair like Korean boys and dropping by to say hi.” “I shy away from showbiz. I love to do things undercover. Behind the scene. Like saving damsels in distress from stray bullets or getting raped by terrorists.” “Pretty romantic.” “Not so romantic many times. Like during that last quake having to keep a truck from rolling and running over a crook who could help his people a lot if he started listening to his wife and changed.” “Well, epic. You certainly are an angel.” “What’s happening around us keeps angels busy. Do you have a clue why they are happening?” “Is God mad at us?” “Do you know why?” “He’s telling us something we do not understand or just ignore?” “Just ignore is more like it? What are the barangays affected in the siege?” “Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, Rio Hondo.” “In the names alone, what’s common in two of them?” “Santa. These are names of idols some people worship though they think they are Christians.” “And what annual festival are Cebu and Bohol known for?” “Sinulog. A pagan rite honoring Santo Niño.” “And what historical things were principally destroyed that Filipinos really grieve for?” “Century-old churches.” “And they were full of?” “Idols. God hates idolatry.” Her conclusion came like a cry, widening her eyes. “People know that but ignore.” “The Ten Commandments say that.” “The entire Bible rings with the message. Israel lost its kingdom because of idolatry. Open your Bible and read. Even beyond the Bible and his people, God speaks through current events. Try opening your Bible now and read.” She did open her Bible, her eyes falling on Amos Chapter Four, and he said, “That’s a good page to start on.” He slid close to help her and ran a finger through the verses. “Verse six onto the end of Chapter Five,” he said and caught Eunice staring at him. She blushed and read where he was pointing. I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to me . . . It is true, she thought after reading, God Almighty controls everything. People may scorn his words like HIV but he can shake their world like intensity nine, dry their coastline for a mile and poke their backyards with sinkholes and mortar craters. If his words read like whispers, his echoes resound like thunder storms. She turned to give Gabby her take of the passage, but he’s gone. Maybe went to the john at the back of the church. Around her shuffles and greetings awoke. People are now coming in. Where is he? To keep his seat, she placed her bag and Bible on his space and looked around for him. But minutes later, as the worship leader began, she realized—could it be, Paul’s words coming true, my prayer answered?—she’d talked to an angel.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 23:39:08 +0000
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