Heavenly Returns
Heartsick and in a state of shock I sat at my desk
unwilling to believe I had just lost more than a year's
worth of research. The research, a compilation of personal
true stories, was slated for my second book on angels and
Heavenly intervention. That day I had intended on making a
back-up copy of my files and was distracted by phone calls.
Thinking I was all done I placed old files into the trash on
my computer and emptied it. Within seconds I realized what
my distraction had just cost me. I had inadvertently deleted
all the files.
My stomach felt ghastly and fighting tears, I called out to
my husband, “Shawn, if I empty the trash on my computer, is
everything really gone?”
I know he heard the distress in my voice because he was up
the stairs in seconds, “What's happened?” he asked.
I tried to explain what I’d been doing but somehow had
gotten mixed up and deleted all the files, rather than just
the old copy. Then I sat there in a state of shock.
The lost “angel file”, this collection of powerful and
uplifting stories, was from writers in a number of different
countries and by losing the file I lost not only the
material but all the contact names and addresses. With the
file gone, there was no way to back track and ever locate
those same stories. I was devastated, not believing that
with one simple click, I had committed such a costly
blunder.
Shawn sat at the computer searching for the missing files.
We have a program especially designed for locating any file
within the system. Shawn provided the program with the name
angels and the response indicated that “0” (zero ) files
existed. He checked through systems but nowhere in the
system was a file hiding called “angels”. In fact nowhere
could the word “angels” be found. It was as if the entire
file had never existed. He turned and looked at me, “I'm
sorry honey, there's nothing there.”
I looked at him, fighting tears and speechless. I thought of
the hundreds of stories, among them some priceless gems.
These stories needed to be read by others. They could help
ease the pain of grieving for some and give hope to others.
I silently pleaded with God for assistance.
Shawn gathered me into his arms. “I'm sorry honey, the file
is gone. There's nothing.”
When he left the room, I sat in front of my computer, not
willing to let go of the hope that somehow this stuff would
show up. I went through the same steps that Shawn had just
performed but the response still came back, “0 files found.”
Again I thought of the importance of the many stories, their
ability to ease the pain of hundreds and maybe thousands of
people and I continued sending out my distress signal to the
only power I knew who could make things better, God. So for
the third time I used the search program to find the deleted
files and this time instead of zero the finder indicated
there was a file called “Angels On Earth”.
Daring to hope that my prayers and been answered I shouted
for Shawn. I was paranoid about taking the next step and
actually clicking the mouse. Shawn sat at the computer and
in moments we were staring at this huge file. All the
stories were there. Everything that I had deleted had been
returned. Awed and overwhelmed with a full feeling of
gratefulness I sent up my silent words of “thank you.”
“I guess we just didn't scroll all the way up the first
time,” Shawn offered as an explanation.
“Sweetheart, you saw it was gone. You saw the Find program
tell us more than once that the file did not exist. Shawn I
prayed for help and got it.”
Shawn just smiled at me. “I'm glad it's recovered honey,” he
said.
There are some things that we just don't argue about. We
each have our own opinions and thoughts. Personally, I think
I just got mail from God.
Ellie Braun-Haley copyright 2002
shaley@telusplanet.net
Ellie is accepting submissions for her upcoming book.
Stories must be true personal accounts. She looks for
stories about angels, Near Death Experiences, Death Bed
Visions, stories that demonstrate the power of prayer, After
Dearth Communications and others. Because a number of people
have changed their e-mail addresses in the past two years
she asks those people who have a new addrress and who have
submitted a story to please contact her with the new
address. or re submit the story. More information by
contacting Ellie. Contact her by e-mail
shaley@telusplanet.net