Guardian Angels
We can't prove that guardian angels exist
The Bible clearly tells us that God sends angels to protect people: “He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11–12).
But are these what we think of as “guardian angels”? Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 seem to support the idea that individual people (or at least children) have guardian angels, “in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” But Jesus may only mean that angels are assigned to protect little children in general. (In sports terms, the angels may be playing “zone” rather than “man-on-man” defense.)
When the disciples in Acts 12:15 say that Peter’s “angel” must be knocking at the door, this doesn’t necessarily imply that they believe in individual guardian angels. It’s possible that they believed an angel was simply guarding Peter at that time.
While arguments can be made, there seems to be no definitive biblical proof for the existence of “guardian angels.”
After the tornado, many local children reported seeing and being protected by butterflies or “butterfly people” when the tornado hit. Some believed they were angels; others felt them to be a more indescribable presence.
But the butterfly stories spread quickly and became a powerful image for the community as they came together to recover from the storm. From painted murals to public sculptures to community children’s art projects, the butterfly theme was present everywhere.
About one half of the children were counseled at Joplin Child Trauma Treatment Centers set up in the schools afterwards. The clinical director Dawnielle Robinson heard these stories first hand from many different children. Many of these children stated that they somehow knew these “butterfly people” were there to calm them and help keep them safe.
Todd C. Frankel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an article about these apparitions entitled “The butterfly people of Joplin” (Dec. 19, 2011). He describes former newspaper reporter Marta Churchwell's investigation and interviews with people. Marta is a natural skeptic and did not believe in “angels.” After numerous interviews she cannot discount the possibility because so many children, who didn’t know each other, told similar stories.
