In 1999, at Seraphim Center, where I had my office, another Alliance of Divine minister, not well known to me, had stopped by my door one afternoon. His name was Michael. As I said hello, I saw a heart of green light on my wall that I hadn’t seen before nor have I seen on any wall since. Taking that as a sign, I told him that I had been seeing balloon-shaped circles of light on the wall, appearing and disappearing for seconds, until again there was only the wall. Michael called them angels and said that was why children were so attracted to balloons. I was enchanted. Angels had playfully entered my life.
Angels next appeared just before I fell asleep. In inner vision, I saw different colors of small circles of light, at first a few, then many; I knew what they were. If I didn’t see the angels for a while, I would ask them to come and most often they would, but not always. Angels clearly were a comfort for me.
Andy Lakey published Art, Angels, and Miracles in1996.* After my own experiences, I eagerly purchased it and brought it to India, along with two rolled, poster-size photos of where I lived. Unbeknownst to me, angels had appeared in one. It was of morning sun on an expanse of angled trees, garden, and distant woods, partially viewed through a very large spider web spanning a veranda’s tin roof to one of its posts.
When I unrolled it, I noticed white streaks softly shaped, as if a circle had been pulled leaving a rounded front that behind narrowed until diminishing to nothing. All were identical in their length of about one-and-a-half inches. They appeared graceful, seeming to fly across the landscape. Some were grouped (as birds do in flight) and others were moving singly. But together they created a feeling of unity. I couldn’t understand. Disappointed by the print being marred, I took a marker and blackened the shapes then took both prints for framing. When I returned, the man said that when he was ready to package them, he saw white marks on one that hadn’t been there the day before. He pointed my attention to the same print where I had previously covered the shapes. There were new ones. He didn’t understand. Overcoming my momentary incredulity, I did, although I couldn’t give him an answer. But it was obvious to me that they were meant to be there. At home, looking at the scene, wondering, still amazed, the insight came—these too were angels. They had been watching over me at the farm, still were, and for the first time were letting me know.
In 1986, on New Year’s Eve, Andy Lakey had a drug-related, near-death experience during which he’d told God that if he lived he would do “something to help humankind.” He had seen seven figures swirling around him “like a tornado,” and within three weeks began his efforts to sketch what he had seen. He had always been a doodler and was now filling pages seeking to understand that night. Over the next three years, he worked to pay off debts and begin a new life, while continuing to correctly identify in his drawings what he remembered seeing. He believed that the love of those seven angels had saved him. Then he had a second angel vision. This time three men came to give him his mission: he was to paint 2,000 angel paintings by the year 2000. Andy Lakey had never before painted.
Art, Angels, and Miracles tells Lakey’s almost incredible story, not only by words but also through many pages of his paintings that are a unique art form, meant to be touched as well as seen. Two of his earliest purchasers were young boys, ages nine and eleven, who were clear and confident about the real presence of angels in the paintings. As the healing energy of his angel paintings rapidly became known, celebrities purchased them for their collections or presented them as donations to hospitals and other healing centers, where Lakey’s paintings invited the touch of thousands of people with a resulting healing response for so many. Andy Lakey’s promise became a reality as he and his paintings of angels continued to “find” opportunities to serve humankind. He passed away in 2012, creating more paintings right up until his passage. His book is beautifully co-authored by Paul Robert Walker who called Lakey, “one of our most prolific painters.”
Art, Angels, and Miracles currently rests propped on my sofa—open to page 53, “Ball of Light.”
My realization is, “Angels are with us, and Andy Lakey saw them and painted his vision. For us there is an opportunity to feel comfort or hope, guidance or healing from his angels, or perhaps our own, if we are willing to open to the ineffable, that which is a deeply personal knowing beyond reasoning.”
*Andy Lakey and Paul Robert Walker, Art, Angels, and Miracles (Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing, Inc., 1996
Angels next appeared just before I fell asleep. In inner vision, I saw different colors of small circles of light, at first a few, then many; I knew what they were. If I didn’t see the angels for a while, I would ask them to come and most often they would, but not always. Angels clearly were a comfort for me.
Andy Lakey published Art, Angels, and Miracles in1996.* After my own experiences, I eagerly purchased it and brought it to India, along with two rolled, poster-size photos of where I lived. Unbeknownst to me, angels had appeared in one. It was of morning sun on an expanse of angled trees, garden, and distant woods, partially viewed through a very large spider web spanning a veranda’s tin roof to one of its posts.
When I unrolled it, I noticed white streaks softly shaped, as if a circle had been pulled leaving a rounded front that behind narrowed until diminishing to nothing. All were identical in their length of about one-and-a-half inches. They appeared graceful, seeming to fly across the landscape. Some were grouped (as birds do in flight) and others were moving singly. But together they created a feeling of unity. I couldn’t understand. Disappointed by the print being marred, I took a marker and blackened the shapes then took both prints for framing. When I returned, the man said that when he was ready to package them, he saw white marks on one that hadn’t been there the day before. He pointed my attention to the same print where I had previously covered the shapes. There were new ones. He didn’t understand. Overcoming my momentary incredulity, I did, although I couldn’t give him an answer. But it was obvious to me that they were meant to be there. At home, looking at the scene, wondering, still amazed, the insight came—these too were angels. They had been watching over me at the farm, still were, and for the first time were letting me know.
In 1986, on New Year’s Eve, Andy Lakey had a drug-related, near-death experience during which he’d told God that if he lived he would do “something to help humankind.” He had seen seven figures swirling around him “like a tornado,” and within three weeks began his efforts to sketch what he had seen. He had always been a doodler and was now filling pages seeking to understand that night. Over the next three years, he worked to pay off debts and begin a new life, while continuing to correctly identify in his drawings what he remembered seeing. He believed that the love of those seven angels had saved him. Then he had a second angel vision. This time three men came to give him his mission: he was to paint 2,000 angel paintings by the year 2000. Andy Lakey had never before painted.
Art, Angels, and Miracles tells Lakey’s almost incredible story, not only by words but also through many pages of his paintings that are a unique art form, meant to be touched as well as seen. Two of his earliest purchasers were young boys, ages nine and eleven, who were clear and confident about the real presence of angels in the paintings. As the healing energy of his angel paintings rapidly became known, celebrities purchased them for their collections or presented them as donations to hospitals and other healing centers, where Lakey’s paintings invited the touch of thousands of people with a resulting healing response for so many. Andy Lakey’s promise became a reality as he and his paintings of angels continued to “find” opportunities to serve humankind. He passed away in 2012, creating more paintings right up until his passage. His book is beautifully co-authored by Paul Robert Walker who called Lakey, “one of our most prolific painters.”
Art, Angels, and Miracles currently rests propped on my sofa—open to page 53, “Ball of Light.”
My realization is, “Angels are with us, and Andy Lakey saw them and painted his vision. For us there is an opportunity to feel comfort or hope, guidance or healing from his angels, or perhaps our own, if we are willing to open to the ineffable, that which is a deeply personal knowing beyond reasoning.”
*Andy Lakey and Paul Robert Walker, Art, Angels, and Miracles (Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing, Inc., 1996