Angel Fingerprints

   The day was cool, dry, and sunny with a crisp feel to the air in the pre-Christmas season of 2001. Bob Kristensen decided early that morning that he would cut some wood from a neighbors yard. She had a dead tree that she wanted removed and Bob had a hungry, wood-eating furnace at home. Completing his regular work schedule early, he headed towards the field, tools in hand.

   Bob had a strong belief in God, a personal relationship which permitted him a belief in angels. However, he had never encountered one so knew little about their existence except what the Bible told him. In fact he spent very little time thinking about them at all.

   The tree he was about to cut leaned a little to the north. It was large, a 40 to 50 foot Maple about 3 feet in diameter. It had been damaged during a storm. As he looked at it, he knew that this tree would feed his furnace for a month or more so Bob swung his axe for the first cut. He expected that, since the tree was leaning to the north, it would fall in that direction. He notched the north side of the tree with his axe and then moved around to the south side of the tree where he began to cut it with his chain saw.

   He watched his saw cut deep groves into the thick bark and then through into the center of this long standing shade tree. Bob glanced at the top occasionally, watching as it swayed a little, then he moved his eyes back towards the cut he was making in the side of the trunk. Without any warning, the tree fell suddenly, right over the spot where he was standing. It came straight at him and he felt himself begin to move backwards.

   As if in an instance, the next thing he knew he was laying on the ground with his leg underneath the tree at a spot where the trunk was bowed. He wiggled his left leg and pulled it out from under the tree, and dusted himself off. He appeared unharmed and was soon joined by some men who were working nearby. They asked if he was okay several times.

   Bob decided to ask one of them if he saw what happened. When his colleague replied in the affirmative, he asked the man to describe what he had seen. Bob was told that it looked like he was moving backward very fast but that neither of his feet was touching the ground. In fact, the man surmised that there was a space of about two feet between Bob’s feet and the ground under them.

   That was when Bob began to think about divine intervention for the first time. Although he did not feel anything hit him, he felt a soreness to his left front shoulder and when he investigated discovered a large bruise. The main part of the bruise was probably baseball size although the whole left side of his chest was swollen. This was the only souvenir of his encounter with a tree that probably weighed 3000 pounds.

   Later that evening, when talking about his experience with a friend, that man posed the question, “If a three thousand pound tree fell on you and hit you on the chest, how could you possibly have gotten out from under it? Maybe that bruise wasn't from the tree after all but from a heavenly hand!”

   Bob asked his pastor what he thought. "The Bible says that angels are created beings with high intelligence,” the pastor replied. “They have the ability to make moral judgment but they are spiritual beings without physical bodies. The Bible clearly says that there are angels who guard people although I am not convinced that there is necessarily a guardian angel assigned to each person. The idea that people who die become angels is not biblical but more an inspirational idea and popularized in the movie industry.”

   He went on to explain that in scripture, angels are of a separate created order from mankind. “When human beings die, those who go to heaven remain human beings. Angels are created to serve the Lord and the Bible talks about them protecting man. Psalm 91: 11 says For He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so you will not strike your foot against a stone.” The Reverend went on to explain that there are angels, like man, who are fallen and that God, through His Son, has provided a redemption plan for man but not for angels. Do angels help some but not others? “It would appear so according to God's higher purpose,” he added.

   The next morning Bob woke as usual. When taking a shower before breakfast, he noticed five distinct imprints on his shoulder, four on the back side and one on the front. Each imprint, like a bruise, was exactly the size of a fingerprint, four on his back and one on the front of his shoulder, just a little above the large bruise noticed the day before. As he placed his hand over the bruises, he knew that his angel had moved him out of harms way for there was a clear palm print, fingerprints and all, to prove it.

   Since then, he has walked daily with the knowledge that God does care specifically for those who love him. While he has not encountered another angel, Bob has experienced God’s caring in other ways. He also knows of many who act as God’s angels in human form and he hopes he has become one of them.