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Alice was lying on her back on the grass gazing up at clouds meandering gently overhead when she first saw the angel. She suddenly became aware she wasn't alone. She noticed a slight movement out of the corner of her eye, and when she looked properly, there was the angel, sitting legs crossed on the old tree stump.

"Hello," said Alice. Although he looked a bit like a slender boy or an overgrown pixie, Alice knew it was an angel because he was surrounded by a haze of soft light.

"Hello," said the angel.

Alice thought hard. She'd never met an angel before, so she wasn't sure what to say. But he seemed to be waiting, so Alice said, "Will you teach me how to pray?" She thought that sounded suitably holy.

"OK," said the angel. "Put your hands together and close your eyes -"

"- not that!" interrupted Alice. "I know all about that! I know how to say my prayers. I say them every night. I want to know how to pray." And to her surprise, she discovered it was true. She did want to know how to pray.

"OK," the angel replied, unfazed. "Come on, then."

Alice blinked. She was never quite sure what happened next, or how it happened, but she found herself with the angel in a wooded glade. Sunlight was filtering through the trees like lace, and playing on the surface of a stream wandering at the foot of a small bank which marked the edge of the glade. Alice just gazed. She thought she had never seen anything so beautiful.

After a bit the angel said, "Go ahead, then. Ask for anything you want."

"What?" said Alice, startled.

"Ask for what you want," repeated the angel.

Alice thought. Then she started a list. It grew longer and longer. She started with a video for herself, and some designer gear, and a CD of her favourite group, and as she named each item, so it appeared in front of her. It was just like one of those game shows. Alice was thrilled. She went on and on, wildly shouting out anything that came to mind, until the glen was overflowing with new possessions. When she couldn't think of anything else to ask for, Alice stopped.

She glanced at the angel. He was looking at her solemnly, but Alice was sure there was a twinkle in his eye. Then she looked back at the huge pile of things in front of her, and felt slightly sick. "Don't you want them?" asked the angel.

Alice shook her head. "Can I change my mind?"

The angel shrugged, and everything disappeared. Alice sighed with relief. She felt much more comfortable now she could see the glade again in its natural beauty. Then a thought occurred to her.

"I'd love my Gran to be here," she said wistfully. Gran was in hospital, and Alice had overheard her parents talking in sombre tones about 'death' and 'not long now'.

The angel smiled, and immediately, Gran was in the glen. She was in a wheelchair, but she looked fit and well, and very happy. As Alice watched, Gran wheeled herself about the glen, exclaiming with delight over the charm of the little stream and the protective strength of the tall trees. As Gran drank in the beauty, so she seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

Alice was so excited she wanted to jump up and down and cry out to her Gran, but strangely, no sound came and the old lady seemed not to realise Alice was there. Perhaps it was better that way. Perhaps Gran needed to be able to absorb the healing of the glade by herself. So Alice sat in the shadows, contentedly watching.

As Alice watched her Gran, she found herself thinking of other people. As she thought, so each person appeared alone in the glen. Tammy, Alice's best friend, whose parents were splitting up, looked happy for the first time in months. Davy Jenkins, whom Alice disliked and feared and who was on probation for joy-riding, had an expression of wonder on his face. Alice warmed to him for the first time.

This was good. Alice was absorbed in her task, and decided to widen her boundaries. She thought of children who were starving or ill-treated in countries abroad, and watched them playing delightedly in the glen. She thought of the people she'd seen on television, whose homes had been destroyed by a bomb, and people whose homes had been flooded when the river burst its banks. They all came to the glade.

It took Alice a long time to remember everybody, but it was so exciting to see them all relaxed and content, that she didn't mind. At last she said to the angel, "Will it last? Will they stay happy?"

"That's not for you to know," said the angel. "You wanted to learn how to pray. Real prayer doesn't depend on knowing the results. It's about being in God's presence, and holding other people in his presence with you. That's what you've been doing this morning."

"I didn't see God," said Alice, surprised.

The angel laughed. "Don't you read your Bible, Alice? No-one sees God. That doesn't mean he's not here. You know you're in his presence, don't you?"

Alice nodded. She had never before realised how good it felt to be with God. But she had another question. "I know people were happy here in God's presence, but suppose I want something special for them? Like my Gran. I really want God to heal her."

"Then hold her in the waterfall," said the angel. As he spoke, a waterfall appeared, spilling into the tiny stream.

"Won't she get wet? I mean, I don't want her to drown or anything."

"Try it yourself, then," suggested the angel.

Alice ran over to the waterfall and stood beneath it so that the water poured over her, saturating every part of her. Only she discovered it wasn't water. It looked like water, but she didn't get soaking wet, more soaked in the most extraordinary feeling of love she'd ever experienced. She didn't want to come out, but more than anything else she wanted her Gran to rest beneath the waterfall.

"It's the fountain of God's love," explained the angel. "Full of healing because it's living water. And it drenches every part of you."

Alice had just one last question. "This has been brilliant," she told the angel. "But how will I ever find this place again? I don't even know how I got here."

"You'll never forget this glade," said the angel. "Any time you want to come here, just find a quiet spot, close your eyes and picture the glade in your mind. And if you ever get fed up with this spot, choose another one. God is present everywhere, so you can choose anywhere you like."

Alice was content. She made to thank the angel, but he had gone. It didn't matter, for Alice thanked him in her mind. She knew he was right, and she'd be able to visit the glen whenever she wanted. And she knew the angel would receive her message.