A Guardian Angel?

Originally Posted on May 12, 2006


 Are you an angel? Anakin Skywalker, TPM

Yes, I know I started with the same quote as I did on my previous entry. However, it bears repeating here. The issue of angels has appeared in a few blogs over the past couple of days, and it got me to thinking: Guardian angels...do they truly exist? I believe that they do, and they often "appear" to us in our times of greatest need. This entry was originally only going to look at Padme' and how I believe her to be Anakin's Guardian Angel, but my ideas took a different turn after reading something this evening.

I work as a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at a pediatric hospital, and I encounter children with life-threatening illnesses and injuries on a daily basis. As an employee and donor, I receive a quarterly publication providing updates on the facility. Also included in these publications are descriptions of "Miracle Children" who have beaten the odds and are now thiving thanks to "our" care. Anyway, one of the children featured this quarter was an adolescent girl who had sustained severe injuries from being hit by a car and thrown into the air. Her best friend had died immediately, but this girl survived, albiet barely. The title of her "article," Angels watching over me, describes how her best friend spoke to her and told her that everything was going to be ok...that she was going with the angels now, but that she would never leave her.   Of course, I started balling my eyes out...not because I had cared for this girl at her worst and that now she was home and doing well, but because she described how she knew everything was going to be "OK" thanks to her friend. The family went on to describe us nurses as "guardian angels" who watched over her, allowing her to come home.

I frequently hear families calling us guardian angels...but are "we," as nurses, as living humans really guardian angels? I have always thought of guardian angels as "spirits" who watch over us, being there when the need for them is greatest, but never really going away. When faced with a life-threatening or life-altering event, who is there with us, really, besides our families, friends, and strangers (as in the case of hospitalizations)? The story above suggests that there are others watching and protecting us...others that those arounds us cannot see or sense.

Now, when Anakin first sees Padme' he asks her if she is an angel. He then goes on to describe the "rumors" he had heard from the traders about them being from the Moons of Viago and that they were the most beautiful "creatures" in the galaxy. Padme' then calls him a "silly little boy." However, it was fate that introduced Anakin and Padme' that day. Anakin's sense of Padme' being an angel was his way of forseeing her as his guardian angel. Although they were apart for 10 years between TPM and AOTC and then again at frequent intervals throughout the Clone Wars, their connection remained strong. They were each the counterpart of the other...sensing when things were not "right" and living for one another. Each one looked out for the other, although Padme' seemed to be more of a "guardian" to Anakin than was he to her. After her death, Padme' became the "protector" of Anakin's soul during the Dark Times, making herslef known occasionally through her children. When Anakin senses her through Luke, he knows that she never gave up on him...that she lived on through their children.

Now, my questions to you...Do Guardian Angels exist? If they do, are they only made visible to those who need them? Are they "spirits" in the sense that nobody can really see them or are they composed of the matter that form humans and other living beings? Can a living person be considered a Guardian Angel?

Now you don't have to answer every question, or any for that matter. I'm just curious what all of you think about this. May the Force Be With You