Andy Sommerville lives a quiet life in a Southern town in
Virginia. His "quiet" goes up in flames one Saturday
afternoon during a robbery at his gas station. He is in the
hospital recovering from burns to his hand and face and a
bad knock on his head. Andy has been out for days and
describes his state as just being black, somewhere between
heaven and hell. As he awakes, his trusty old friend, "Old
Man," is at his bedside to give him more words of wisdom.
"Old Man" has been with Andy since Andy's parents died when
he was 10, when Andy came to live with his grandparents.
Andy thinks of him as his "angel." No one but Andy can
see "Old Man." He guided Andy through the rest of childhood
and into his adult life. He's the one who told Andy he
would need the box in the end. Andy keeps a wooden box
of "memories," objects that the "Old Man" has told him to
keep to help him remember people and situations that have
occurred throughout his life. That box is in the hospital
with him now.
Andy has another visitor in his room, Elizabeth. She is
seated in the chair next to his bed. "Old Man" tells Andy
that he will not be seeing him again, but he should listen
to Elizabeth. She will guide him through this ordeal. Andy
thinks Elizabeth is some kind of counselor when she begins
asking him all sorts of questions he really doesn't want to
answer.
Eventually, Elizabeth gets Andy to go through the box and
tell her the stories behind each of the objects there. She
sits and listens, cutting paper all the while, interjecting
questions here and there that give Andy a lot to think
about in how he has lived his life. Some of Elizabeth's
questions are tough and Andy becomes angry at times. He is
still struggling with finding his own sense of place in
this world. Did Andy learn all the lessons he should have
learned from the experiences he is recollecting?
PAPER ANGELS is a masterfully told story about the lessons
we learn in life and how they prepare us for discovering
our purpose here. Elizabeth's words of wisdom encourage us
to look beyond what we normally see, not just seeing with
our eyes, but learning to see with our hearts. Billy
Coffey's inspirational story about faith and trust is a
definite must-read. I found myself writing down many of the
wise and wonderful expressions used by both "Old Man" and
Elizabeth in this story, expressions worth referring back
to as reminders of how we should live our lives. Don't miss
this one!
Andy Sommerville seems no different than others in his rural
Virginia community, but what sets him apart is that his best
friend is an angel. The angel is God's answer to a childhood
prayer Andy offered to a twinkling star that his deceased
mother once called "the door to heaven." The first angelic
proclamation instructs Andy to find the wooden keepsake box
in his grandparents' attic. Over the years, he directs Andy
to fill it with apparently meaningless objects from twelve
people with who Andy randomly crosses paths. Andy's world is
turned upside down when a brutal attack leaves Andy burned
and the boy he loved as a son dead. At this crucial
juncture, the angel abandons him to loneliness and pain. All
that remains is the wooden box Andy has always kept safe,
and a new angel, who will use its contents to reveal truth
to him as a result, he discovers the defining truth of his
life, new hope in the community he loves, and greater trust
in the God who sustains him.The story is told from Andy's
hospital bed, where he awakes feeling God has abandoned him.
Without being preachy or saccharine, the author brings the
small town to life and reveals a spiritual secret--the
presence of angels--that helps a wounded man discover the
defining truth of his life, place new hope in the community
he loves, and trust totally in the God who sustains him.
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