ENTERTAINING ANGELS UNAWARE

A comment was made about the post I wrote on FaceBook concerning the fact that in scripture when angels encounter human beings, they often saw to the people to whom they are sent, "Don't be afraid." They do this because people for the most part are shocked to see these messengers of God, and they need to be comforted.

I remember seeing angels as a child and they just filled me with wonder and peace. I believe angels are among us more than we realize . . . as is implied in that passage admonishing people to give hospitality to strangers because they might be "entertaining angels unaware" (from Hebrews 13:2).

I believe that all infants and small children are more connected to the spiritual world because human beings are primarily spirits incarnate in this earthly reality. We have to learn to feel more at home in the material world and then our conscious minds forget what our spirits know and connect to in dreams and meditation or in dissociation . . . mystical visions . . . contemplative prayer.

Then also there's that concept concerning the "thinness" of the barrier between the material and the spiritual. . . God always had good reasons for sending His messengers to the people who we read about in the scriptures. In our post-enlightenment world of Western secular humanism, though, we have been taught to disbelieve in the spiritual world. Therefore many of us have allowed massive intellectual blocks to remain, so this may preclude heavenly interaction.

In one Bible study source I came across, it says that angels are mentioned around 300 times in scripture. The most spectacular visitation is described in Chapter Two of Luke's Gospel when he writes of the angel who appeared to the shepherds along with the heavenly host to announce that the fullness of God's redeeming love and peace had come into the world with the birth of Jesus. And yes, the shepherds at first were "sore afraid," which has also been translated as "terrified" in English.

They had reasons to be afraid. First to have seen the glory that "shone around" the angel that appeared to them in the midst of that dark night under the stars must have indeed been quite a shock. Next, they were the recipients of the proclamation that God had fulfilled the promise He had first made through the prophet Isaiah about 700 years earlier that the Messiah had been born in nearby Bethlehem. And then the shepherds heard the heavenly host singing wonderful praises to God. Of course it was like nothing that they or anyone had ever experienced.

How awesome!!

After watching the angels head back to Heaven, the shepherds made a decision to check out what had been told to them. Their fear had left them and they headed into town to find "the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger".

There is a lot more to say about angels in scripture, but I will stop for now. I would love to know if the Lord has sent messengers your way. Let me know if you would care to share, Beloved.