Angel with One Foot: The Backstory

“How do angels look like?” my Sunday school teacher asked when I was in grade school.

My thought balloon, They’re dressed in long white dresses, with wings, and have a glow over their heads. 

I didn’t say it out loud because I thought it was a dumb question. Everyone but her knew the answer.

Growing up and growing old, you realize that the dumbest questions are usually the wisest. As your perspective widens, the linear concepts you knew as a child transmute into multi-dimensional prisms. 

The Bible shows us angels in many forms. Language, which continuously evolves, gives angels a myriad of definitions. Figures of speech make things even more complicated.

Conclusion: Angels can look like . . . Endless possibilities. 

My husband was telling me one day about a friend who serendipitously met someone to whom she owed a debt of gratitude years earlier. Their meeting led to a closer friendship.

Debt of gratitude . . . that hooked me, as any interesting story does. I sat up and asked myself, “What if?”

My “what ifs” made me find ways to translate his narrative in a way that might teach kids the value of gratitude. How can this story be different from other tales?

- What if my husband’s friend were a kid?
- What if the lady to whom she owed a debt of gratitude disappeared?
- What if the kid felt incomplete without having said thank you to her lady benefactor?
- What if the benefactor had only one foot?
- What if . . .

Benefactor: angel?

I am oversimplifying it, but the thinking process had swung high and low, until the first draft was completed months later.

Angel with One foot (illustrated by Beth Parrocha-Doctolero) is a story of gratitude—of how one must never miss to say “thank you” to any angel who does him/her a favor.

On a grand scale, for me, I am forever indebted to the One whose empowering grace spurred me to ask “What if?”