Proof of angels book review

Proof of angels is by Ptolemy Tompkins and Tyler Beddoes. This is my interpretation/feelings on the book.

            Proof of Angels is essentially a collection of spiritual experiences. One of the main experiences, which was the sole purpose of the book, was about a group of police officers called to a scene, a car that was found floating in a river. While the police were struggling to overturn the car, they heard a voice yelling for help, and for them to hurry. It was not a singular experience, and it heightened their speed and their agility. They flipped the car on its side and saw a devastating image. The driver, a woman in the front, was deceased and horribly disfigured by the wreck. Half of her face had been peeled off, and it was evident that she died upon impact of the fall. They were dumbfounded and knew that they had heard a voice. But they didn’t and have yet to know where it came from.

When they regained their strength and went back to the car, they hoped to find another woman, something to explain what they heard. Instead they found an 18-month old girl named Lily, who had been upside down in the river all during the night and had been dunked in the water for a whole two minutes while the car was still sitting on its side. They were horrified, but mostly astonished at how this little girl could have survived. Yes, she was tightly buckled and strapped into her car seat, but the river during that night was barely 45 degrees. What one of the officers, one of the first ones to arrive on the scene, believed it was an angel protecting Lily, and then making sure that she was saved in time during the rescue.

            There were many stories in this book that gave me chills and even goosebumps, but the main thing it provided to me was hope. According to the book, angels come when they are most needed. In times of deep despair or even life-threatening danger. They exist in a world that is the same as our own, yet invisible to human eyes; only becoming visible when it chooses to be, and when it is necessary and on God’s terms. The author explains our inability to see using the example of a “helmet” that covers or shields us from the spiritual realm. When we choose to take our helmets off, or when they come off on their own, we are more susceptible to things that we would not see or believe otherwise. While some stories you know are fabricated and made up for attention, the true experiences you’ll know because you cannot convince the person who’s seen it otherwise. You cannot chuck it up to insanity; they know and understand the beings or things that they saw.

            Another example is when a bomber went into an elementary school. He was accompanied by his wife and his teenage daughter. The man was unstable and spoke about dying and starting a new world in a different universe. He wanted the children to go with him because they were smart and at a teachable age. And while his daughter fled, his wife was right there along with him, planning the demise of all the young children that were in the school that day. As it came, when the bomb went off, it wasn’t nearly as powerful as it should’ve been. Besides that, it exploded upwards onto the ceiling, and down the wall where the wife was standing. She was immediately engulfed in flames and fled outside with the rest of the children. The husband, who was in the restroom at the time, came out firing his gun. He first shot his wife who died on impact and aimed at the teacher who was escorting the children. Instead of firing, he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger right there on the sidewalk. Those two were the only ones who died that day. After the incident, the children spoke about people on the ceilings, that they were glowing and giving them instructions. Those instructions helped save those kids lives and got them out of the direction of the explosion of the bomb. Each of their experiences were different, and they were at the age where they would not plan that themselves. There were beings that were there that day protecting them, and I don’t think they would ever be able to forget it.

            My point of this review is not to retell the entire book, but to offer some of the things that will remain with me during both my troubles and the joyous moments in life. It gives me comfort to know that I am not alone, and that in my gravest hour I will be protected. It always remains why some people live, and some people have to die. Why some people suffer, and some people live extremely extravagant lives. The answer is that we don’t know, and that it’s up to God to make the decision. However, I believe and have the faith that he knows and will make the right decision when the time comes. The universe is a much bigger place than we realize, and we are just a small part of a much larger picture. Whether angels really exist is not the question in my opinion, but as the author so earnestly explains, it’s how they play a role in each of our lives.