An Angelic Visitation in Room 229B?

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Some years back I remember visiting an elderly lady in her home to exam her eyes. My sister had arranged it, since the law firm she worked for was overseeing care for the lady and managing her estate. She was bedridden by choice. While theoretically mobile and alert enough to get around by herself, she chose to remain in bed and have others supply her needs through a contracted care provider. A nurse would come to her home, fix her meals, change her bed, and clean her house. She apparently, rarely made efforts to leave the comfort and safety of her warm bed. While she had Alzheimer’s and would not always remember recent events, she was able to carry on limited conversations.

 

While there, I checked the health of her eyes and determined the prescription for new glasses. While she didn’t use them much, her old glasses were worn out and too strong for watching television, her major activity. The nurse and I, with the elderly woman’s help, picked out a pair of attractive frames for her from the ones I had brought for her to view. I said good‑bye and left to order the glasses.

 

A week or so later the glasses arrived at my office recently and were verified as correct. My office staff called to arrange for me to dispense the glasses at the elderly lady’s home. We were told that she had come down with pneumonia and had been admitted to the hospital. I offered to dispense the glasses to her in her hospital room. My office staff arranged a time when this could be done.

 

The day when I was to go to the hospital to dispense the glasses was especially hectic at the office, and I was running late. I fought traffic and tried to maintain a level of spiritual maturity as stoplights and cars failed to cooperate. On the way God placed on my heart that I should look for an opportunity to pray with her. I didn’t have to tell God I wasn’t in the mood to pray and knew that was no excuse. I did ask God how I was supposed to pray with her if there were nurses treating her or if she had visitors. My perceived answer to prayer was that God simply said, “Be willing to pray if at all possible, if the opportunity presents itself.” I told the Lord I would be willing, although the hectic day had not necessarily put me in the most spiritual of moods.

 

I entered the lobby of Mercy Hospital and went to the front desk to verify that the elderly lady was still there. The young girl looked on her computer and verified that she was in Room 229B. I said thank you, and took an elevator to the second floor. I wandered down hallway after hallway following the signs for her room number. Finally I found Room 229B which was the current home of my elderly patient. I entered the room noticed an elderly woman in the first bed asleep. I then looked at the other patient in the room and recognized my patient. I went over, said hello, and asked how she was doing. She responded with a flurry of meaningless and unintelligible words. She seemed to be unaware of who I was and possibly even where she was. I attempted to tell her why I was there, but she did not seem to comprehend. She responded with more sentences that ran together and were incoherent in meaning.

 

I took out the glasses and placed them on her face. I adjusted them, and again, attempted to explain what I was there for. Again her response came as before, phrases that were jumbled and non‑related.

 

All during this time, the prompting of the Lord had remained with me. I knew I was there to dispense glasses, but knew I was to look for an opportunity to pray. There were no visitors, no nurses, no doctors and the other elderly woman sharing the room was fast asleep. God had provided the opportunity.

 

I asked my patient if I could pray for her. One more time she responded with words that had no relationship to each other. I waited for her to stop talking and prayed. I prayed that God would heal her and make her well so she could return to the safety and comfort of her own home. It was a short prayer, but possibly that is all God wanted me to do.

 

I opened my eyes and said good‑bye to my elderly patient. All of a sudden she began to raise her head off her pillow. She looked straight ahead with a distant stare and lifted her arm and pointed. She mumbled some words. I could only understand the word “There.” I was concerned, for she had never had this look on her face before. The wrinkles of her face seemed to have smoothed some and she looked as if she had undivided attention to something at the foot of her bed. At the time my focus was on her face and the strange look it possessed. Then the look faded, she lowered her arm and her head gently drifted back into her pillow. I said good‑bye again, told her to take care, and left her room. As I walked down the corridors of the hospital wing, I pondered what had happened. Once in my car, the traffic and business of life distracted my thoughts away from my experience.

 

Late that night I awoke from a deep sleep. My thoughts had returned to my hospital experience with the elderly woman. Then a thought entered my head. What if my elderly patient had seen something? Had someone appeared and ministered to her? Possibly God had wanted me to pray so that this would lay the foundation for an appearance of an angel to minister to her. I then thought, “Why hadn’t I looked to see what she was staring at?” Then God gave me the answer. I was not there to see an angel. I was there to pray for her. If there was an angel, it was for her, not me. My focus was where it should have been, on her.

 

I don’t really know if there was an angelic visitation in Room 229B that day. Possibly it doesn’t really matter. What matters, is that I was faithful to follow through with what God had placed on my heart. The rest can be left up to Him, and His plan for my elderly patient’s life.

 

Hebrews 1:14

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

 

Hebrews 13:1‑2

“Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”