More thoughts on angels

Angel', of course, being the English transliteration of the Greek word for messenger...

The Old Testament is pretty ambiguous about angels as heavenly beings.  Sometimes they are referred to as "men", sometimes it's hard to tell if they're human, heavenly beings, or the Holy One.  We've used the term to refer to Seraphim and Cherubim, which have no real English equivelants.  I recall an Old Testament professor saying that seraphim roughly translated into "fiery serpent", and I've always been struck that in most cases the first thing an angel says is, "Don't be afraid", which makes me think they probably don't look like the Hallmark angels or Roma Downey or even Della Reese. Probably not terribly like Raphael's puti or those Precious Moments figurines, either.

In seminary my best friend Clara and I used to joke about how we had our own personal angel whose job it is to write down on a board every time you say, "I'd NEVER ...sing in public, date a divorced man, be seen in a casino, have a child who did that...(your own personal boundary breaker here)" and then to make sure that you do that.  I believe we decided my angel's name is Harold.    He's not exactly a guardian angel, except he keeps me from getting too proud or self-righteous.

Harold has been busy lately, keeping me very humble.  In fact, over the last five years he's kept me so humble that I can hardly stand myself.  I am sorely tempted to be afraid.

On the other hand, I've never been much of a believer in guardian angels.  Oh, the idea is nice, and I remember learning the song from Hansel and Gretel when I was in cherub choir ("When at night I go to sleep, fourteen angels watch do keep..."), but frankly, I just felt like too much bad stuff happened to too many people for guardian angels to be doing much of anything.  That is, I felt that way until last week when my grandson was saved from great harm in an accident and I was able to get out to see him without running myself off the road.   It felt like there were guardian angels with him and with me, protecting us when we couldn't do anything to take care of ourselves.

These are the manifestations of grace -- very few people deserve the really bad things that happen to them, but let's face it, few of us truly deserve the really great things that happen to us, either.  We didn't earn our families or the times in which we were born.  Most of us have experienced the love of parents or of a partner when we didn't deserve it.  Few of us deserve peace on earth or the good will of all people.  Yet the heavens are swarming with angels, who despite their terrifying appearances (sometimes in terrifying circumstances) bring good news of great joy--we are saved for abundant life by the One who loves us eternally.  Don't be afraid.