By Hans Hallundbaek
Angels have helped me find peace most of my life. I have experienced their protection in dramatic ways. As a child of war in Denmark when Germany invaded my homeland, armed conflict became the focus of my family’s life.
Denmark, as a peace-loving country with limited military defenses, had no chance against the mighty and well-oiled war machine of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, and the country surrendered after only a few days of resistance.
My first experience with the occupying force is seared into my mind. One early morning a long stream of black-painted German war planes with large swastikas came up from the south and flew over our area on their way to occupy the country of Norway, just north of Denmark. They flew so low they had to climb a bit to clear the hedgerows. It was like a deliberate effort to intimidate people in farms and villages below with the deafening noise of their roaring engines.
With my parents and siblings, we watched this demonstration of raw military power from our backyard. The planes flew so low that we could clearly see the pilots in their cockpits. I was frightened, but too young to really understand what was going on, until my father raised his fist and shouted “Damn the Nazis” at the planes. It was the first time I had heard my father swear, so I knew something was seriously wrong.
I was five years old at that time, and not until I turned ten would our country be liberated. It was a dark time. German soldiers everywhere. Large foreboding concrete bunkers were built along the coastline to fend off a possible invasion by the British, and along the main roads machine gun nests were established, in case the allied forces would succeed in reaching inland. Less than five miles east of our house the Germans built the largest military airport in Scandinavia, and soon bands of Messerschmitt and Henkel fighter planes daily ruled the skies.
In the meantime, all imports had been stopped, so no gas for cars, and soon all food articles from abroad disappeared. No coffee, no tea, no imported flour, spices or fruits, and even domestically produced products like butter, sugar, and bread were strictly rationed. We lived in the countryside and could grow some of our own food, so we didn’t starve.
Halfway through the war the combined British and American air forces started nightly bombing raids on the newly built German military airport nearby. After midnight planes would come from the west right over our house, and a few minutes later would reach the airport and unleash their bombs. We quickly learned the drill and would by then already have scrambled to the basement where we huddled together in deadly fear as the house began to shake from the powerful explosions. For almost a year this was an established, almost monthly routine.
Then the air raid strategy changed. The planes came in the daytime and were clearly seen against the blue sky. They came in a four-by-four formation at twelve thousand feet, in an armada of planes that seemed to cover half the sky.
We later learned they were American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, but at the time all that mattered was that they had come to set our country free. Well knowing they couldn’t see us, we still rushed out on the roads and streets and waived jubilantly at these beautiful, shining flying machines.
I quietly convinced myself they were angels cleverly disguised as B-17’s and I made a solemn prayer that one day I would be able to live in America, the liberator of our country. That would be the fulfilment of a dream I once had when seeing the Statue of Liberty in a geography book.
A few months later that dream almost came to a tragic end for our whole family when during another air raid an anti-aircraft grenade hit our house. These grenades are deadly weapons and designed to explode on impact. However, I believe the angels may have tinkered with this bomb, for it refused to explode and just plowed its way through the house and ended up embedded deeply in the basement floor. Surprisingly no one was hurt, although all of us were shocked to the core by this close call. I took this event as a confirmation that angels are real, and their protection brings miracles. This one saved our lives.
My dream to become an American citizen came true in 1990. I was ecstatic about the opportunity for a new life in the United States. However, I had at the same time reached a level of discouragement about the shallowness of the materialistic world and finally gathered up the courage to leave the business world and go to seminary. My childhood thoughts about angels were calling me into serious theological studies, first at a Catholic school of theology and later at a progressive ecumenical seminary in New York City. Thru my lifetime I had moved from traditional fundamental Christian religion to Buddhist teachings and other world religions until finding A Course in Miracles. I fully embraced the idea of Oneness with God and each other. I grew out of fear and into love. ACIM became the foundation of my spiritual life.
More study in the academic world brought me to a whole new and mostly unknown universe, the world of prison. Here, “among the least of these,” I discovered my true calling, “setting the prisoner free” through various rehabilitative spiritual, therapeutic, and educational techniques. It was very demanding, but also a most rewarding work, and the biggest surprise was that my efforts to release the prisoners’ minds through education ended up having healing effects on my own mind. This eventually led to the realization that we are all children of war, whether fought on the military battlefield or in the social struggle for position in a highly competitive world.
Of the women and men, I have worked with over the years in prison, many have gone through powerful transformations, becoming model prisoners helping others find their way of release from childhood demons and have become beacons of light in the community they return to upon their parole. They have found the peace that is elusive to so many.
Because of my experience in Europe as a child of war, the ongoing focus on peace is important for me, and therefore our annual family summer vacation for years has been two weeks on Cape Cod to seek the peace of a quiet fishing village and art colony called Wellfleet. My lifelong search for angels led us to a local thrift shop there where we found a treasure which now hangs on the wall in my study.
It was a high-quality paint reproduction of an angel holding out an olive branch. The price tag said twelve dollars, which I felt I could afford. When I took it to the cashier, and she said it was on sale for six dollars, I knew this angel was meant to be mine.
My wife and I both enjoyed the picture and back at our cottage we went to the internet to find out who had created this great angel. There was no name on the piece, nor information about who had painted it. However, after some search we were excited to find that the original was located at the Louvre Museum in Paris and that the piece was named “Angel with an Olive Branch, Emblem of Divine Peace.” We further learned that the piece was painted between 1475 and 1480 in the Netherlands by a highly respected artist named Hans Memling.
Not only is this piece of art what I would consider the ultimate peace painting, but the fact that the artist had the same first name “Hans” as me, struck me as an amazing coincidence; a timeless moment when Hans Memling was reaching out through five centuries to me his name-brother with this unique gift of his masterpiece, Angel of Divine Peace.
Some ask if angels are real. My favorite spiritual teaching in A Course in Miracles reads “Angels are spirits from God whose job is to protect our minds from the ego and light our way home.”
And more from ACIM, “Say God’s name, and you invite the angels to surround the ground on which you stand and sing to you as they spread their wings to keep you safe and shelter you from every worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.”
Hans Memling’s Angel of peace, now a centerpiece on my wall, gives its sense of peace to me every morning when in its honor I light a candle for peace in the world.
As this child of war recalls the meandering road I have travelled so far, it is with deep gratitude that I recognize the angels that have guided me on this journey. Therefore, I will confidently continue to trust these angels to show me the way out of this illusionary world and guide me safely home to the peace of God that passes all understanding.
__________________________________________
Around you angels hover lovingly, to keep away all darkened thoughts of sin, and keep the light where it has entered in. [CE T-26.IX.6:3]
__________________________________________
If you enjoyed this story you might enjoy this one!
Or you may be interested in delving deeper into A Course in Miracles.
