The Angel That Prayed For Me

There I was sitting on the bench feeling beyond frustration and going through a brooding state. A feeling of not knowing what to do next came through me as I sank into the public chair I was sitting on. I received my twelfth rejection email after going through a series of interviews within the last nine months. I remember feeling completely helpless. It was in that moment when my mind no longer had an idea of what to do or how to move forward after the continuous effort to try to make things happen. It was time to surrender my situation to God, that deepest part of who I was since I no longer had an idea of what to plan next in my life.

As these thoughts and emotions were running through me, a young man with a backpack approached me. There were other people around me, but he picked me out and began speaking to me. He asked if he could pray for me. Surprisingly, I answered “sure, you can pray for me.” He began praying for me. I was a bit startled, yet I listened to him while he prayed over me. When he was finished, he quietly walked away with his backpack still on his back and eventually disappeared into the crowd.

It was then when something inside me knew that his prayer was preparing me for something extraordinary in the upcoming weeks. What came into my life was the experience of more losses. The feeling of getting the rug pulled out from under me had become real in my physical life. What I had worked for, the security and stability that come from life’s work, was taken away from me. However, that angelic visit and my continuous prayers was my saving grace. Perhaps that young man sent me a message that day to remind me that yes, it will get tougher these next few months, but my divine resilience will get me through the crises I had come to meet.

Indeed, it was months of chaos which sometimes led me to despair. The feeling of uncertainty was ripe in my bones. I felt the anxiety of not knowing how I will survive in the next several months. I survived. It was more than surviving, I grew, I blossomed from my heartaches of life’s struggles. I became faithful in myself because I reminded myself each day that since I was an image of God, it was God’s strength that got me up each day and lived in the Divine presence through acceptance, surrendering, keeping the trust and becoming patient each day.

That young man with the backpack remains in my memory. He was the angel that appeared before me when I needed prayers and support the most. It was the message from the Divine, “you are not alone in this experience” that taught me how to keep my faith.