And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host… Luke 2:13
Mom had just arrived at our home for a holiday visit. As she stared at an angel ornament on my tree, she said, “My mother saw an angel when I was a girl.” Then she told me this story:
“When I was young, I had severe asthma. One night I couldn’t breathe. Mama was begging and praying that I wouldn’t die. Suddenly she looked up in the open doorway to the hall and saw a beautiful darkhaired woman. The woman didn’t say a thing. She just smiled and gave a friendly wave. Afterward Mama told me, ‘I think it was an angel telling me that you would live and grow up to be a woman like the one I saw standing in the doorway.’”
Mom’s story has challenged my conventional ideas about angels. Her angel looked like an ordinary person. Mom’s angel didn’t do anything remarkable; she didn’t even say anything. Yet in the hour of deepest need, my grandmother had drawn strength and hope from this being who did absolutely nothing except stand there and wave. Sometimes the whole mission of angels is simply to appear.
Angels are spiritual beings who are invisible except when they choose otherwise; we humans are visible beings whose spiritual side is invisible until we choose to let it show. This Advent season, I can imitate the angels by letting someone glimpse my spiritual side. Maybe it will be seen as I drive to church or when I help a person in need. Maybe it will be heard when I sing a carol or write a Christmas letter telling about the wonderful things God has done for me during the past year.
This Advent, let’s be angelic. Let’s become visible!
Lord, I pray that Your light will so shine in my heart that it will be seen by everyone I meet.
