Angels, Known and Loved

©2022 Susan Noyes Anderson

Photo by Dingzeyu Li on Unsplash

I never felt strong stirrings
about angels in the past.
Their role for me was limited
and, by me, rashly cast.

Messengers, proclaimers, heralds,
choirs––certainly!
Rebukers, guardians––why not?
But none applied to me.

Angels were meant for prophets or
disciples in sore need.
They were God’s hands to bless His chosen,
or call them to heed.

Their ministry was set in motion
by the Lord’s design.
They were not ours to call upon
but His, in His own time.

These sacred visitors on earth
came not by man’s request.
They and the miracles they wrought
arrived at God’s behest.

And yet, it seems this truth I knew
was not quite true at all;
God’s angels are for every child
whose faith extends the call.

On earth, angels are found in friends
who serve us with great love,
but we are also loved and served
by angels from above.

And often, these are dear ones,
members of our family tree…
who went before and now give care
to their posterity.

Most angels are unseen, and when
no sign informed my eyes,
I felt God’s help but did not feel
His angels by my side.

I had no inkling I could pray
for angels to attend;
nor did I know I could request,
by name, whom He would send.

What greater blessing might be mine
than understanding this:
Our loved ones lost can be the angels
standing in our midst.

I cannot name a gospel truth
that offers me more bliss.

∞§∞

Since losing my son in 2018, this concept could not be more meaningful to me, and I am grateful to have been introduced to it. If this poem speaks to you, you might also relate to Homecomings and Goings andHope Takes Wing.

Footnotes: This poem of mine was born when I listened recently to an interview with guest Kaylene Harding on the Latter-Day Saint Women podcast.1 She related a story about a near drowning that occurred while she and her husband David were serving as mission president and companion of the Baltic Mission in Latvia. Her daughter and other children were visiting the mission home when the tragedy happened in Utah.

These are Sister Harding’s words about that night: “All of a sudden, there was a knock at our bedroom door. Our daughter was standing there, sobbing uncontrollably … The first thing she uttered was, ‘Coleman has drowned,’ … her three-year-old son at the time. As we put our arms around her and tried to comfort her, a very distinct thought came to my mind, ‘Ask for angels.’ And so I did. I immediately began praying, and I asked very specifically by name for angels to attend him and her from the other side.”

Truly, there are few coincidences in life. Before setting off on their assignment, the Hardings had attended the Mission President Seminar at the MTC in Provo. There, they met with President Nelson (then of the quorum of the 12) and his wife, Wendy. She happened to counsel with Sister Harding about “asking for angels.” She then added, “And Sister Harding, ask for them by name, and let me know how it works.” These words were echoing in Sister Harding’s mind when she asked the Lord for specific angels to attend her daughter and grandson that night; and miracles occurred, including his being brought back to life and suffering no permanent effects from the drowning.2

After hearing the podcast, I felt impressed to find out more about Sister Nelson’s counsel, where it had come from, and why she had offered it. What I found was enlightening. At the 2016 Rootstech Conference in Salt Lake City, speaker Wendy Watson Nelson talked about angels again and referenced a 2010 Conference talk by Jeffrey R. Holland that particularly inspired her.3 Among other things, Elder Holland had counseled, “Ask for angels to help you.” Sister Nelson shared her reaction with the audience. “[Elder Holland] said it with such clarity, and yet he said it in a manner that implied this was something we all knew! But for me, it was an entirely new principle. I wanted to call out, ‘Wait! Wait! What?’ You mean I could have been asking for angels to help me all this time?” After an appreciative chuckle from her listeners, she continued, “Without intending to sound too dramatic, I can say with all candor that Elder Holland’s six words changed my life: ‘Ask for angels to help you.’ … That counsel changed my prayers. It changed my understanding of the very real help from heaven that is always available to us as we keep our covenants. I started to ask for assistance from those on the other side of the veil from that moment on!”5

Sister Nelson’s book, Covenant Keepers, published the same year she spoke at that Rootstech Conference, reiterated and expanded upon her advice: “So, could you use a little more help in your life?  If so, keep your covenants with more exactness than you ever have before! And then ask for angels (a.k.a. your ancestors and other loved ones) to help you… Or ask for them to be dispatched to help those you love.4 President Russell M. Nelson’s words apparently confirm his wife’s thoughts: “You may even want to ask God for His angels to walk with you …”.6 He went further in his October 2021 Conference talk entitled “Make Time for the Lord” by saying, “To each of you who has made temple covenants, I plead with you to seek—prayerfully and consistently—to understand temple covenants and ordinances. Spiritual doors will open. You will learn how to part the veil between heaven and earth, how to ask for God’s angels to attend you, and how better to receive direction from heaven.”7

Looking for additional support for the notion of not just asking for ministering angels but asking by name, as both of these sisters did and have, I found this statement from James E. Faust: “I would like to say a word about the ministering of angels. In ancient and modern times angels have appeared and given instruction, warnings, and direction, which benefited the people they visited. We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives.” Elder Faust went on to quote President Joseph F. Smith, who said, ‘When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred [and] friends…Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their friends and relatives upon the earth again, bringing from the divine presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof or instruction, to those whom they have learned to love in the flesh.’8 Elder Faust summed up his words on the subject with a personal observation, “Many of us feel that we have had this experience.”9

I ended my research there, concluding that the advice about angels from Sister Nelson which impacted Sister Harding so profoundly––as influenced and supported by the counsel of President Nelson, Elder Holland, President Faust, and President Joseph F. Smith––had adequate doctrinal support to encourage a prayer for confirmation on my part. After receiving that personal confirmation, fortified by my conviction that President Nelson would not have supported the premise of Sister Nelson’s talk and book had he not agreed, I sat down and composed the poem. I have yet to put asking for angels into practice, as I don’t want to abuse the privilege, but it gives me no small amount of joy to know, in times of great need, that I may specifically ask to be ministered to by my loved ones who reside in the Spirit World. What a blessing of comfort that will be!

1 Kaylene Harding, The Help of Angels, episode 90, Latter-Day Saint Women podcast series

2 Kaylene Harding, The Help of Angels, episode 90, Latter-Day Saint Women podcast series

3 Jeffrey R. Holland, General Conference, 2010, A Place No More for the Enemy of Your Soul

4 Wendy Watson Nelson, Covenant Keepers, 2016, p.30

5 Wendy Watson Nelson, LDS Living, How Angels Can Help Us More in Our Lives, Feb. 2019, as stated earlier in Rootstech   Conference 2016 and Covenant Keepers, 2016

6 Russell M. Nelson, Four Gifts that Jesus Christ Offers to You, 2018

7 Russell M. Nelson, October 2021 General Conference; Make Time for the Lord

8 Gospel Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1959, p. 436

9 A Royal Priesthood,” Ensign, May 2006, p. 50–53

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