Holy Family and Angels,
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Israel
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2017
Our adult bible class is currently studying a new series
by Adam Hamilton on Faithful: Christmas through the Eyes of Joseph. The Christmas story primarily unfolds with
Mary and the virgin birth of baby Jesus.
We don’t give Joseph much attention, but as Hamilton notes, “God’s plan
for the redemption of the world depended on one man’s willingness to raise a
child who was not his own.” Some scholars
think that Joseph may have been much older than Mary and it could be possible
that he may have even died before Jesus’s three-year ministry which is why the writers
of the New Testament don’t have much more to say about him.
There are many accounts of angels visiting humans either in
person or in dreams. Angel is a
derivation of the Greek word Angelos, meaning messenger. Mary was visited by an angel to announce her
pregnancy. Joseph received four critical
messages from an angel in his dreams.
The phrase “Don’t be afraid” is one of the most recorded messages in the
Bible and was the opening phrase for many celestial conversations with human
beings. This doesn’t necessarily mean
that the angel’s presence scares the wits out of us human beings, but many
times they are comforting words for someone in distress. That certainly was the case of the holy
family that was presented with the awesome charge to raise God’s son!
Renaissance painters and others have long depicted angels
with wings, primarily to denote their spiritual nature. Hamilton reminds us that the writer of
Hebrews challenges us to welcome guests into our lives, for some folks have
entertained angels without knowing it. We’d
probably notice it if they arrived at our doorstep with wings though! We too can be instruments of God’s purposes
and be seen as angels in the eyes of others.
We too can sometimes be the recipients of the good works of angels on
earth when seemingly regular folks give us a helping hand in our time of need. God generally works through others like me
and you these days.
I personally encountered a man with snow white hair years ago
when I was alone outside our church attempting to finish a mission project while in
the middle of completing an annual budget for my job. He appeared out of nowhere on a cold late winter’s day, helped me gain entrance to the building and then vanished. The next day I described the man to our
senior pastor but he did not recognize him. Later reflections on the encounter still leaves me wondering about his appearance and persona.
Later I had a short conversation with a man whose father died suddenly
when he was a boy on the family farm. He
was understandably distraught and walked out into a nearby tobacco field. Then he was suddenly met by a being that
calmly told him not to be afraid and that everything would be OK. These words of comfort and assurance immediately
gave the young boy a sense of warm peacefulness and he went on to enjoy a
successful career in business later in life.
Hamilton concludes his message by stating that “As we look
for joy during Christmas, we can often find it in being an angel for someone
else. We experience joy when we take our
eyes off our situation and focus on blessing, building up, encouraging, or
serving others.”
Merry Christmas 2017
