What If You’re the Angel?

We speak a lot about angels. We ask them for signs. We ask them to protect us, guide us, put the right people in our path, and occasionally make their instructions a little more obvious.

But recently, I found myself thinking about angels in an entirely different way.

What if sometimes you are the angel? 

Not the winged variety hovering over someone’s bed or intervening when danger erupts. 

I mean you being that person who makes a significant, life-changing impact in someone else’s life, just by sitting down next to a stranger. What if that chance encounter changes the direction of someone’s life?

And you may never even know you did it.

I was reminded of this recently when I received a text from a young woman I hadn’t heard from in quite some time. She is a singer I met more than a year ago. She wrote to thank me for introducing her to my friend Noemi, who had become involved in the music world and was helping artists make connections.

That one introduction led to another. Noemi took her under her wing. She eventually connected with another woman who has also been helping her. And now one of her songs has landed on a production company’s playlist for possible use in future projects.

She was excited. I was excited for her.

I clearly remembered where we had met. At a LegalShield booth during a very challenging 9-year period when I was forced to let go of people, places, things, and definitely expectations. 

Yes. For one brief period in my rather unconventional career, Joan of Angels apparently decided that prepaid legal services might be part of the divine plan.

Let’s say it was an experiment.

I liked the people. I believed in protecting yourself legally. I had even gone through the process of trademarking Joan of Angels, so the idea of protecting what you create certainly made sense to me.

But selling legal plans? Not exactly my natural habitat.

My team and I had a booth at a large consciousness expo. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity. It wasn’t. We enrolled no one. Not one person. By the usual definition of success, that booth was a complete failure ~ except for one thing.

The Person I Was Supposed to Meet

One of the people on my team had brought his girlfriend with him. I had seen her before, but we had never really talked—this time we did.

She told me about her music. And as she spoke, something instantly clicked. I knew she needed to meet someone I knew. There wasn’t a lightning bolt. I didn’t hear celestial trumpets. No angel whispered into my ear, Joan, pay attention. This is why you’re here.

I had a feeling. Connect these two women. So I did. And then I went on with my life. I didn’t know what happened after that until her text arrived.

Suddenly, I looked back at that experience with new eyes. I had thought I was at that expo to accomplish one thing. Maybe I was there for something else entirely. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to sell anything. Maybe I was there to make this one introduction.

What If You Are Someone Else’s Divine Timing?

We tend to think about divine timing in terms of ourselves.

When will my opportunity come?

When will I meet the right person?

When will the door open?

When will my prayers be answered?

But what if we’ve only been looking at half the equation?

What if sometimes you are the divine timing in someone else’s life?

That possibility fascinates me.

Because angels don’t always arrive with wings.

Sometimes they arrive with a phone number.

Sometimes they say, “There’s someone I think you should meet.”

Sometimes they’re standing behind you at Starbucks.

Sometimes they’re sitting next to you on an airplane.

Sometimes they’re the woman at the booth you almost walked past.

And perhaps the person playing the role of angel doesn’t know it either.

We may feel a nudge.

Call her.

Introduce them.

Go over and say hello.

Send that message.

Tell him what just came into your mind.

And because it seems so ordinary, we don’t realize something extraordinary may have just happened.

The Invisible Web Between Us

I have always believed a hidden hand is at work in our lives. Call it Source. God. Spirit. Our guides. Our angels. I experience it as innate intelligence that can bring together the right people, circumstances, and opportunities at precisely the right moment.

But we still have to participate. We have to listen to those little nudges.

This is where intuition becomes very practical. Intuition isn’t only about receiving visions or knowing what will happen next. Sometimes intuition is simply knowing:

These two people need to know each other.

We underestimate the spiritual significance of connection.

One person knows another person.

A conversation leads to an introduction.

The introduction leads to an opportunity.

The opportunity changes a life.

And the original connector may never know what happened.

Think about your own life. Who introduced you to someone who became important? Who recommended the book you desperately needed? Who encouraged you to make the call? Who invited you somewhere you almost didn’t go? Who said something in passing that stayed with you for years?

Perhaps some of the angels in your life had absolutely no idea they were angels.

We Don’t Always Know Our Assignments

This experience also reminded me of something else. We’re quick to judge the meaning of things while we’re still living them. 

This worked.

This didn’t.

This was successful.

That was a mistake.

We may not have enough information to know the truth. The human mind measures one thing. The soul may be measuring something entirely different. I measured that expo booth by how many people we enrolled. Zero.

Spirit may have measured it by whether two people who needed to find each other actually did—one person was impacted. That one person was enough.

That changes the way I look at some of the seemingly random encounters in my life. Every place we are drawn to isn’t about what we are going to receive. Maybe sometimes we’re being sent there to give something.

A connection.

A word.

A kindness.

An introduction.

A moment of recognition.

It’s possible our assignment was to open a door for someone else and then keep walking.

Pay Attention to the Nudge

I have an agreement with my guides. If something is not for my highest good, I ask them to move it out of the way. Cancel it. Delay it. Redirect me.

And when I feel strongly guided toward something, even when I don’t completely understand why, I try to pay attention. But now I’m adding something to that conversation.

Who might I be here for?

Not just: What am I supposed to get from this? But: 

Is there someone I’m supposed to meet?

Someone I’m supposed to encourage?

Someone I’m supposed to connect with?

Am I carrying a piece of information that belongs to someone else?

That is a very different way of walking through the world. And it takes some of the pressure off needing every experience to produce something for us. 

Perhaps you attend the event, and nothing happens for your business. But you meet someone who needs exactly what you know.

Perhaps the meeting you thought was about one thing turns into a conversation about something completely different.

Perhaps the stranger beside you tells you something you need to hear.

Or perhaps you’re the stranger who tells them.

What If You’re the Angel?

There may be people walking around today whose lives are different because of something you did and then completely forgot about. A word of encouragement. An introduction. A kindness. A moment when you saw something in them that they couldn’t yet see in themselves.

You may never receive the text I received.

You may never find out what happened next.

And maybe that’s part of it.

We don’t always get to see the ripples.

So the next time you feel that little nudge to call someone, introduce two people, speak to the stranger beside you, or say the thing that suddenly appears in your heart, pay attention.

It may seem insignificant.

It may take five minutes.

You may walk away and never think about it again.

But somewhere in the invisible choreography of another person’s life, those five minutes may matter enormously.

We spend so much time asking our angels to show up.

Perhaps every once in a while we should ask a different question:

Whose angel am I being asked to be today?

Perhaps this article found you in divine right timing, too.

TAKE ACTION: If you’ve been feeling that there is something more you came here to do, Joan of Angels offers complimentary Soul Vision Discovery Sessions to help you listen more deeply to what your soul has been trying to tell you. Book your Soul Vision Discovery Session.