Heaven was a wonderful place.  Everyone knew each other and they greeted each other like family, which of course, they were.  Angels of different sizes were important in the running of Heaven.  There were adult angels, teenager angels and very young angels as well.  This is the story about one such angel.

         His name was Moley, and they called him Holy Moley.  Even though he was a very small angel, he had a big heart that loved everyone and everyone loved him. 

He always tried to do what was right and be the very best he could be.  When he was given a job to do, he did it with everything he had in him. He always wanted to be a blessing to everyone he met.  Yes, Moley was a very good angel indeed. 

The problem was, quite often things didn’t go the way he wanted them to go, and most often not even the way the grown-ups around him thought they should go.

He was always obedient and listened to his elders, but no matter how hard he tried, the jobs they gave him always seemed to get messed up.

Moley thought that Jeremiah, his Angel Guardian just didn’t understand the things that he did that went wrong were accidents.  Even though Jeremiah was very patient and lovingly kind to him, he felt bad when things didn’t go as requested.  Jeremiah always listened to Moley’s explanations and sympathized with them, but Holy Moley wanted things to be completed perfectly.  It’s just that when things went wrong, they often went very wrong and after all, accidents do happen.  He just knew that he would do better next time though, after all, he was almost six years old in Angel years and getting much more grown up!

Just then Jeremiah stuck his head out of the door and called for Moley.  Holy Moley…where are you.  Please come here”.  Because Moley was such a very small angel he was sometimes hard to see. 

He was sitting a short distance away and could hear Jeremiah well.  “I’m over here, Jeremiah, over in the big tree.”

Moments later Jeremiah stuck his head around the tree and saw Holy Moley sitting on a low branch just swinging his legs back and forth.

“Moley, I have another job for you, but please follow my instructions exactly, ok?  All the other angels are on other assignments and you’re the only one available.”

Moley said; “Yes, Jeremiah, I promise I will get this one right.  I will try my best and hardest!  What do you want me to do”?

Jeremiah patted Holy Moley on the top of his head and smiled.  “Yes, I know you will try hard.”

“I want you to take this blanket over to Angel Sebastian.  He’s over in his office near the Throne room.

“Okey-dokey, I can do that” said Moley.  “I will run so very fast and not even the wind can catch me!”

“You don’t have to run real fast, just walk quickly and that will be good enough.”

Moley picked up the child’s blanket and noticed how soft it felt. It had little patches of velvet, soft cotton and some silky material that felt so nice.  The colors reminded him of butterfly wings when the sun reflects off them.  There were some reds, blues, greens, yellows and all of it was sewn together with love, which was a color that he knew mortals couldn’t see.  That was his most favorite color of all!

 Moley started off, Jeremiah said to him again.  “Whatever you do, don’t dawdle on the way and don’t loose that blanket!”

Moley took off running…for that was another one of the things he enjoyed doing most.  He ran everywhere he could.  He ran down the path past a tree with seven different kinds fruits on it.  He would have loved to stop and taste some, but he knew he had to hurry.  He ran past the glassy sea and past a group of children giggling and playing kickball.  It was tempting to stop and play just for a moment, but he knew he had to get the blanket to Angel Sebastian quickly!  This was a very important assignment.

He ran down the path and through the trees with their limbs stretched out.  He enjoyed the fresh smell from their shinny green leaves and the flowers that grew around the tree.

Just as he got to the other side of the forest, he heard someone yelling. It sounded like someone needed help.  He knew he should just keep going, but how could he refuse to help if someone needed him? 

He followed the sound and came into a small clearing by a large tree with a bubbly brook flowing right beside it.  The stream made soft sounds like giggling as it tumbled and splashed over and around the rocks.

Soon he came to the location where the yelling was coming from.  He looked up and way up in the tree was his friend, Samuel. “Samuel, what are you doing up there and what’s wrong?” 

“Oh Moley, my wing is caught on this branch and I can’t seem to reach around it and get it loose.”  Can you help me?”

Moley knew he shouldn’t stop, but he couldn’t refuse helping someone that was in trouble.  He tucked the precious blanket into his tunic belt to keep it safe and started to climb up to where his friend was stuck.

He climbed and climbed and finally reached where his friend was caught.  He could see that the branch had stuck Samuel through his wing and was holding him tight. 

Moley started to untangle the twigs that were holding his friend’s wing so tight but he was so busy he didn’t notice that another twig had snagged the blanket and it pulled out of his belt.  It came loose and gently started falling to the ground.  Suddenly, the wind grabbed it, and plop, it fell right into the stream. 

Moley heard the giggling of the water and looked.  He saw the blanket had fallen into the water and it was being carried further and further away.

He wanted to stop and chase the blanket, but he just couldn’t leave his friend like this.  Just one more moment and his friend will be free. 

There!  Now he could jump down and run after the blanket.

From where he was, he could see the blanket floating, tumbling and bouncing down the stream.  He ran fast down the side of the stream after the blanket.  He ran faster than he had ever run before!

He finally caught up to the blanket that was happily floating down the stream.  “Now”, he said, “stream, can I have the blanket back, please?” 

The stream just giggled and kept taking the blanket further and further away.  He thought, now how can I get the blanket out of the stream? Suddenly just up ahead he saw a branch lying on the ground. He grabbed the long stick and stretched it out over the water.  The blanket came closer and closer and just as it started drifting by him he caught it with the end of the stick. 

Moley pulled hard and the stream pulled back harder. He tugged and the stream tugged back.  He grunted and the stream just kept giggling and holding the blanket tight.

Suddenly, he gave a mighty tug and the blanket broke free of the stream’s grasp. The blanket lifted up higher and higher, over his head and landed on a great big round rock behind him.  Splat it went since it was all sloppy wet.

He scrambled up the bank, over some rocks and ran to where the blanket had landed.  He reached the big rock where the soggy blanket fell a moment ago just in time to see it slide down the other side of the rock. 

“Gotcha now” Moley said as he climbed up on top of the big rock.  He expected to see the blanket lying in a soggy heap on the other side but instead of his precious blanket, he only saw a big hole and clear blue sky!

He knew there were a few holes here and there so you could see clear down to earth but this was one he didn’t know about.  He stuck his head into the hole and could see the blanket falling down, down, further and further away, falling towards the Earth.

Holy Moley’s first thought was that he could catch it if he flew fast.  But then he remembered that he was not supposed to leave Heaven without permission.  “But if I tell Jeremiah I lost the blanket, he will be disappointed in me again.”  Maybe if Moley went real fast, he could catch the blanket before it hit the earth, then he could come back very fast and it would be like he never left. 

He jumped up and stuck his feet through the hole.  Instead of just sliding through the hole his wings became stuck.  Maybe if he pushed harder, he could get through the hole.  He wiggled, and squirmed and squeezed, and pushed, and bounced and sucked in his breath to make himself skinnier.  Just when he thought he would be stuck there for good, he slipped through and was free! 

Moley looked down hoping to see the blanket but it was already out of sight!  He flew down closer to earth trying to spot the blanket with his special angel eyesight but the blanket was not anywhere he could see. 

While Holy Moley was trying to get unstuck from the hole in Heaven, the blanket had drifted down to the Earth and landed in a bush beside a playground.

A little girl named Greta was just sitting on a swing, but she wasn’t swinging.  She was softly crying.  Her mommy had gone to Heaven to live with Jesus a short while back and she missed her so much that it made her feel sad and lonely. 

Greta was here at the park with her Grandmother.  She looked over and saw that she was talking with some of the other kid’s mom’s at the picnic table on the other side of the playground. She loved her Grandma, but it just wasn’t the same as having her mom there with her. 

Greta saw some movement near the bushes and looked around to see what it was.  The bush was still moving like something had just fallen from the sky.   She thought it might be a little bird landing in the bush, but it didn’t look like a bird.  There was something sticking out of the side of the bush and it wasn’t moving.

A little flash of sun landed on the blanket and it seemed to sparkle, so  Greta decided to go a little closer to take a look to see what was so shiny.  Slowly she walked over to the bush. 

She couldn’t believe her eyes...it looked like a blanket.  “Now I wonder where that came from?” she thought. 

When she got it out of the bush, she saw that it looked like the blanket her mommy had made for her a long time ago, but had been lost when she and her daddy had moved to the new city to be near his mom.

She was so happy she jumped up and down and ran around and around laughing and hugging the blanket to her chest.  She ran back over to the big tree near the swing and sat down. 

This blanket looked the same but was also a little bit different. There were a few new colors in this blanket and the edges were not tattered and well used like her old blanket. 

She rubbed her hands over the soft velvets and put the shiny satin up to her cheek.  It felt smooth and cool, and so very soft.  It also had a kind of sparkly thread between the different fabrics.  It felt so nice that she put it up to her face and closed her eyes.  It even smelled like her mommy’s perfume and she felt like her mommy was right there beside her.  She sighed, nuzzled the blanket under her chin and drifted off to sleep.

Moley flew down, closer and closer to earth.  When his feet touched the ground he looked around for the blanket but it wasn’t anywhere in sight.  He knew it wasn’t very far away, he could just feel it!

He followed the path down to a playground that had lots of children playing there.  He knew that no one could see him, so he walked around looking at all the people to see if someone had picked up the blanket. 

Finally he saw it.  A little girl had it and she was lying under a tree snuggled up to the blanket and fast asleep! 

She looked so peaceful that he just couldn’t take the blanket away from her.  Besides, he wasn’t allowed to interfere with humans and their possessions.  Even though the blanket was his…well, not actually his, but it was his responsibility and he just had to deliver it safely to Angel Sebastian.  He was already late getting it to him.

Now, how was he going to get the blanket away from her?

He found a feather laying nearby, picked it up and walked over to Greta.  He tickled her nose with it.  She wiggled a little bit, scratched her nose, but kept right on sleeping and holding the blanket tightly in her arms. 

“Oh dear, now what can I try” Holy Moley thought.

He thought “Maybe I can get a puppy to distract her, and then I can get the blanket and zoom back to Heaven with it as fast as lightning.”

He used his special angel skills and found an abandoned puppy; brought it back and set it down in front of her. 

It started licking her face and bouncing around, jumping all over her and barking his soft puppy bark “yip, yip” as if to say “come and play with me.”   

Greta woke up and started laughing at the puppy and its antics.  It grabbed the blanket and started tugging, wanting to play.  She laughed more than she had in a long time as she played with the puppy.  When they were both tired, she reached down to pet it and hug it close. 

If you don’t belong to anyone, I will call you Sasha.  The puppy looked at her with big brown eyes and barked an approval. 

Greta reached down and picked up Sasha and wrapped her in the newly found blanket. “There you are Sasha, nice and cozy and safe in my special blanket.”

“Great!”  Holy Moley thought.  “Now she has the blanket and the puppy.”  He wondered, “How am I ever going to get that blanket away from her?”  He knew he had to get back to Heaven before they begin to miss him, which should be any time now.  He had been gone from Heaven for quite awhile and by now he knew they would be looking and calling for him.   

All Moley could do now was just sit down and wait for the little girl to put the blanket down.  Maybe she would play with Sasha and not notice the blanket was missing. 

Greta and Sasha played, tugged on the blanket together, ran around playing fetch, rolled on the ground wrestling, but Greta never once put the blanket down.

She ran over to her Grandma smiling and laughing.  Her Grandma picked her and Sasha up, hugged them both, but the blanket was still held tightly in Greta’s arms.

“Now, who do we have here, Grandma asked?”

“This is Sasha, grandma, and I found this wonderful blanket.  It is just like the one my mommy made me.  Sasha woke me up and started tugging at my blanket. Can I keep her?”

“We need to find out if someone owns this puppy.  We can put an ad in the paper to let who might have lost her where she is now.  We don’t want to keep her if some other child is sad because she got away, now do we?  If no one claims her you can keep her. Meanwhile we will take her to the vet clinic down the street and make sure she is healthy.”

Greta hung her head and said “No, I would be sad too if I lost my puppy.”

They sat down to eat their lunch, sharing with Sasha, now clearly accepted into the family, even if just temporary.  Greta had wrapped the blanket around her waist and tucked the ends into her waistband.  There seemed to be no way to get the blanket away from her now.   

Holy Moley knew that there was no way he could take the blanket and Greta’s new found happiness away from her.  He just had to leave and hope he didn’t get in too much trouble for leaving Heaven and losing this special blanket. 

Slowly he turned away and gave a little bounce.  Up, up and away he flew, heading back to Heaven.

He flew straight back to the hole by the rock he had squeezed through before.  He stuck his arms through.  He had a bit more difficulty getting his wings through, but with a little more wiggling, he finally was squeezed back through and back into Heaven. 

As he sat down on the big rock with his chin in his hands and started thinking of how he was going to explain to Angels Jeremiah and Sebastian about how he lost the precious little blanket.  Again, he had failed and it was almost more than he could bear.  Tears slowly dropped from his eyes and ran down his cheeks.

He sat there he knew he had to go to Sebastian and Jeremiah and let them know he had lost the blanket and messed up again. That was the right thing to do.

        The thought of facing them and letting them know that the blanket was down on earth and not where it was supposed to be, in Sebastian’s hands made his heart ache.  It was going to be very hard to tell them again that he failed in his mission.  Moley thought about all kinds of stories he could tell to try to get himself out of trouble. 

He thought of saying someone had stolen it from him, or the wind blew it out of his hands and swept it away...far, far away.  He thought of running away and not having to admit to what really happened, but he knew that this was not what he wanted, and besides, he knew it was wrong to lie.  He stood up and started walking towards home…without the special blanket.

As he was walking home, he heard someone calling his name.  He looked up, and on the path ahead, walking towards him were Sebastian and Jeremiah. 

He took a deep breath and decided to tell them exactly what happened, no matter how hard it would be.  It made him feel like crying again because he was sure by now they knew that he had messed up again. 

Sebastian reached out and patted Moley on the head.  “We’ve been looking for you, son.” 

Moley replied “yes, I thought you would be by now”.  Moley took a deep breath and said “I have something I have to tell you”. 

“Yes, I expect you have” replied Jeremiah.   “Let’s go sit over by the stream and we can talk about what happened to the blanket.” 

Moley was startled at first but after thinking about it, he knew they would have noticed by now that he no longer had the blanket.          

Holy Moley started telling them the story about what happened after he left Jeremiah with the blanket.  Moley continued with his story and was not leaving anything out.  He was going to tell them everything.  As he told his story tears started falling down his cheeks again.

After Moley finished telling them both about what had happened, they just smiled and said “Yes, we know”.

Moley just looked at them with wide, teary eyes, unable to say anything else.

“You know God sees everything that happens, even the very thoughts we think in our hearts.  He sees our desires and what we do out of kindness for others.  He sees when we succeed at what we try to do and even when we fail.  He sees us when we obey our elders and even when we disobey.  But He loves us anyway.  He even sees our tears when we sit by ourselves and cry.”

Sebastian said, “Just because things didn’t turn out as you expected them to, and you didn’t get the blanket to me, doesn’t mean you failed”

Holy Moley’s eyes just got bigger and the tears stopped flowing down his little cheeks.

“Moley”, Jeremiah continued, “we saw everything that happened from your first step until you met us coming up the path just moments ago”.    

“We’re here to tell you we’re very pleased with you”.  “In fact,” Sebastian said “Moley, we have some good news to tell you”. 

“You really, really helped that little girl Moley, even better than I could have and we are so very proud of you.”  “That blanket was really meant for her to replace the one her mommy made for her but was lost in the move”.  “She was so sad that her mommy, who is here in Heaven, wanted to help make her happy again and God agreed”.  Also, the puppy you gave her was a wonderful addition, and we couldn’t have done any better!”

Moley could hardly believe what he was hearing.  He thought he had messed up; really messed up again and that everything he did went wrong, but somehow it all came out right.  Now he was happy again and knew that if he just did his best all the time, somehow it would come out good in the end.

Both Sebastian and Jeremiah hugged Moley and they all laughed.  Come on Moley, let’s go get some of that wonderful fruit and celebrate!

With a smile so wide it couldn’t be measured, Holy Moley fell into step with his two friends.

The End