I wanna tell my story about angels, which is spine chillin' to this day for me.
But first what can we do, to help people that are maybe pretty disgusting? Well, I find that I feel I am pretty short on cash, so I can't do much that way. Sometimes I give 'em food. But I think giving them the time of day, a kind word for a change, and smile, is always affordable. Winter's comin' on, go to the store and buy the guy with the worst lookin' bed roll a new sleepin' bag! They cost about $20 now days. Coffee on a cold morning is good. A knit hat, some cheap gloves. Don't forget to listen, if they are chatty. Tell 'em kindly about the Lord. Grap their grubby hands (if their dry) and pray to God for 'em.
Now one of my suspect angel in disguise stories.
Years ago, my now ex-wife, and I were climbing a cold snowy mountain, Mt Adams, 12,500 feet or so. My wife was fit, and strong and had been doing energetic toe kicks with her crampons into the ice near the false summit at 11K, making good time. I was, as usual takin' short breathers, and side steppin to get up. When we crested the false summit the wind was became very cold and powerful, yet the sky was sunny. There was a set of icicles coming off a large crag near the top that had formed horizontal, and crystal clear.
We huddle together to get our bearings, then head down the crater to the base of the true summit. Then spindrift began to throw up in the wind of about 50 knots. I couldn't see that well, and couldn't really make out the true summit, and barely able to distinguish the form of my wife ahead. Then suddenly out of nowhere, came two friendly climbers wearing kinda outdated gear. One guy was skinny and energetic, said hi and ask me how I was doing, then went a head and caught up to my wife. I was glad she had someone to assist her, and guide her since I could hardly see her, a could not have yelled to her because of the wind noise. The other guy was so friendly, I thought it was odd, because I just don't normally attract any interest from anybody. He was very strong, and very fit looking, but had the oddest, oldest gear. He asked me if he could tag along with me, and reassured me that his was buddy was a very experienced climber, and would make sure my wife was okay. I was very happy, what a comfort! And the guy who was so strong, he wanted tag along with me! I was somewhat shaky, and pretty doubtful as to how to get to the summit, which I could no longer see, yet was where my spouse was headed.
The wind was so strong my friend pointed out a way to walk along the crater crestline in order to avoid most of it. I was bushed, and felt like I need breathers periodically, yet this new friend would always just feign his own tiredness and kneel or crouch down just before I felt I needed a break, thus sparing my need to ask. It was like he knew what I was thinking. When we huddle together during these short breaks, he would tell me reassuring stories about his own tough climbs, and tell me how good I was doing.
Then somehow, even though we could hardly see, we were in the clouds then, we mangaged to find the summit and his partner and my wife. They even offered us canned food, and even graciously took some our yogurt almonds we had. There food choice even seemed odd, it was like they so Loved to eat that canned chicken breast they had. We all set together at the summit, it seemed like a dream, to be in their company. I was so grateful.
Then we headed down. (I'll try to speed this up) The clouds had totally socked us in a white out, the crater being fairly big, I thought we were lost. But somehow these surprise guys convinced us which was was correct. Our faces by this time looked frozen with icicles on our beards and eyebrows. We were altogether at the false summit, and my wife being very fit decided to take off full blast glacading the 1,000 foot drop to base camp, with the same guy trailing right behind. I having an iffy knee, decided to take it slow at first, and decided to carefully step down the icy first 100 feet. By the time I started glacading, my wife was out of sight in the clouds below. My new buddy stuck with me until I came to a halt from glacading, and when I looked up to see him he was gone. Nowhere to be found. After a considerable while, and fair amount of calling out I located my wife who was CRYING. She had realized how dumb it was to seperate as much as we did, had remembered my semi-bad knee, and gotten some guilt feelings for leaving me after her 'guide' asked her if she had a lot of insurance on me, and asked if she was trying to let me fall off the mountain! He disappeared into the mist next, no trace or sound thereafter.
Because of the love from nowhere from these too sudden helpers, I really suspect I have been entertained by angels, unaware.
Sorry, this was so long.