[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ll through the Christmas story we hear of angels. They were very busy at this time, when God in Heaven sent his Son to earth.
Some people love the idea of angels, some are afraid of them, and there are those who don’t believe they exist at all.
Many of our Christmas Carols are about the angels and their message:
Angels We Have Hear On High
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains
// CHORUS: Gloria, in excelsis Deo! Gloria, in excelsis Deo! //
Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song?
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
See Him in a manger laid
Jesus Lord of heaven and earth;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
With us sing our Savior’s birth.
What do you think of angels?
We like to think of angels as cute little children, but they are usually large and have important business to do. Like protect or help, and tell us something very important.
What the Bible Says
In the Bible they are called messengers, from the words “angelos” in Greek and “mala’ak” in Hebrew. They brought messages to Mary, that she would be Jesus’ mother, to Joseph, and appeared in a dream to the wise men.
Angels like to sing. They sing praises to God, and sang when they delivered their message to the shepherds that the Messiah was born.
Angels are also sent to help people, and there are times they may even look like a regular person, but they aren’t human beings. They are heavenly beings.
Read the Christmas story and count the times that Angels were busy doing what God sent them to do.
Luke 2 1-20
Does Heaven Have a Place on Earth?
Big People Section
What sort of expectations do most people have when it comes to heavenly visitations or interventions in their lives? Most of us would consider it so unlikely that we would be afraid of its appearance in our lives. I think that is why the Bible records the angels saying “Fear not” as their first words on most occasions.
If you think about it, fear is the emotion that many of us experience whenever approached by authority , change, or questioning of the status quo. Dread, fear, and avoidance character many of our reactions to change and agents of change. Angels were often the bearers of news that announced big changes.
We think of the earth as “our place”, and often don’t welcome heavenly interventions of any kind.
The truth is that we share this place with each other and it all belongs to God, not us. We get to travel through and camp here for a very short time.
How different we might act if we understood that. How different we might behave if we knew that Heavenly unseen beings were working along with us, and were witnesses to our activities. Angels were very active when Christ first came so long ago, but the Bible foretells that they will again be very instrumental in the “end of the age”. We can expect more angelic visitation as time proceeds.
Where is your heart when it comes to thinking about such possibilities?
Prayer
Father in Heaven,
Thank you for sending a Savior, Jesus your son. We need your interventions in our lives. We want to hear your messages to us, and we pray that our hearts will be open to the ways you communicate with us.
We thank you that you see fit to send angels unseen to help us at times. Amen.
