Rachel Fritz believes she has had several angel encounters during her life so far, including being “told” that she would one day marry a Richard who would have a heart condition (although she didn’t know and had never met anyone named Richard.) “I have been married to that Richard for eighteen years!” she says today. However, one of her favorite stories was her first remembered experience, when she was about seven years old.

“It was a very hot night, and I had my bedroom window open to let in the breeze,” says Rachel. “I was supposed to already be asleep, but because it was so hot I had just been lying there in bed. Suddenly I could hear the sound of what seemed like thousands of people singing.” The voices were singing a song that Rachel had never heard, and the music thrilled her in a way she had never experienced before. Rachel’s aunt lived a few yards over from Rachel’s family, and as she sat up in bed and listened intently, she thought the music was coming from Auntie’s house. Was Auntie having a party? But it seemed as if hundreds of people were singing, far too many to be visiting Aunty…

The music got louder, and Rachel tiptoed out of her room to find her parents. She expected they would have the stereo on, but the living room was quiet. “There’s nothing going on,” her parents assured her. “No stereo, no party. Now go back to bed.” Rachel couldn’t believe that they didn’t hear the music, so she went upstairs and awakened her sister. She couldn’t hear it either.

“It was beautiful!” Rachel says. “It lasted for a while, and I heard the clock strike 11.00 pm. Eventually it stopped, and I fell asleep.”

In the morning, Rachel was awakened early by the phone ringing. “It was my auntie,” Rachel says. “She was phoning to let us know that her father (a very strong Christian) had died the night before. My mother came into my room to tell me, because I had been very close to him.”

“What time did he die, Mum?” Rachel asked.
“Just about eleven,” her mother answered.
Eleven. When the joyful music was at its peak….
“Rachel,” her mother was smiling, “when I went to bed, I heard the music too.”

Rachel says that, years later, she heard the same music one evening in a church congregation, with both the people---and angels---praising Jesus together! “I have always wanted to tell this story to people who would understand,” she says.
And now, she has.


© 2007 Joan Wester Anderson