Article by Myra Guca - Link HERE
I love the idea of angels! Yet, I used to resist the concept of angels
just a little bit -- wanting to make sure I wasn’t worshipping something
separate from God….rather, a clear expression of God. I love
the image that angels are a protecting presence enfolding us, and the
fact that when I think about angels my thoughts sort of lift up.
Now
some people say. “Aren’t angels just good people who have died?” I
don’t know! I think perhaps, they are divine ideas put in human form.
It’s not too unusual that we would behold the presence of angels this
way. We tend to see what we understand, and I think it is sort of
natural for us to put good ideas with skin on them …so that we can feel a
kind of connection, even humanness to it. It seems more
benevolent, somehow to imagine God’s grace in flowing robes and lovely
smiles, than to think of it just as a blinding light --though that, too,
can be interpreted as an angel by some people.
In the Bible
stories, angels keep cropping up, bringing messages that upset people
and challenge people and change people and comfort people – sometimes
all at once! But the one message they always share is, “Don’t be
afraid.” Then, when we read the description, Heavenly hosts -- we’re
given to understand this isn’t just a bunch of guys in white robes with
harps. This was a massive display of soldiers in full and shining gear
with armor and weapons ….all that would be required to fight some divine
battle! Remember when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said,
my Father can summon 12 legions of angels. Now, if He was going to
summon legions of angels they must be pretty tough. They weren’t exactly
the lovely diaphanous creatures that we like to think of. Instead, they
are a little like say, the great NFL linebacker, Lawrence Taylor. If
you want an angel to go before you, don’t you want somebody like that?!
I
think it’s sad, in this post-modern culture where we’re so attuned to
getting all the facts, that some people just dismiss what they can’t
see, or touch or hear. Maybe children see angels better than we do,
because they expect them. In the middle of play they might suddenly look off, just to the side where there was seemingly nothing…
and smile. Did you ever see a baby do that? Of course, there’s that old
saying, "They’re smiling at angels." I’m not so sure it’s just a
saying.
Do you see the angels? They re all around us!
