I’m sure all of us who had good fathers give great thanks for them. And let us hope that dads who are separated from their children are consoled in their loneliness.

Vince knows how they feel. A few years ago he went through a divorce, and his wife took their four teenaged children to live with her. Vince missed them all very much, but did not want to disrupt their lives by fighting for custody. Instead, he kept in touch as much as possible, and never let a day go by without praying for them. Soon his two sons came to stay with him.

Vince was thrilled, even though his daughters, Laura and Belinda, wanted to remain with their mother. “I am afraid that their mother blamed everything on me, and told them many lies about me,” Vince says. “Although this hurt, I believed with all my heart that God would make everything okay. I tried to keep in contact with them as much as I could. I prayed each night for the angels to watch over them”.

One night the girls were sleeping in their bunk beds, Laura on top and Belinda on the bottom. In the middle of the night Belinda awakened and needed to go to the bathroom. But her bed was so warm and cozy… should she just go back to sleep, and wait until morning? She thought about it, but although she was drowsy, Belinda felt prodded to get up anyway. Reluctantly, she did.

“While she was in the bathroom, she heard a loud crash,” Vince says.  Belinda ran into the bedroom and found that the top bunk---carrying Laura--- had fallen on top of the lower one. Bedding and broken boards were everywhere, and Laura sat in the middle, dazed but unharmed.

Belinda stared at the scene. If she had still been in that bottom bunk, she realized, the weight of the wood and the mattress might have done great harm to her. And what about Laura? Although she had fallen into the mess, she didn’t have a scratch. When Vince heard about it, he felt certain that the angels had indeed been watching both girls.

“My daughters have since come to live with me at their request,” Vince says. “Today we enjoy the life we are building together. God has great plans for us, as long as we leave our lives and faith in his hands.” If you are an absentee dad, for whatever reason, remember that you too can ask angels to comfort and protect your children. It is one of the many gifts that fathers provide.

C 2005 Joan Wester Anderson, www.JoanwAnderson.com