A is for Angels

Angels we have heard on high.

Angels in the Outfield

Touched by an Angel

Amanda.

All examples of angels in today’s society.

But what does that really mean for us?

We look for angels in all areas of our lives. Statuettes of angels crowd every corner of people’s homes. We talk about our guardian angel. We imagine our dead grandpa to be our guardian angel. We picture heaven and it’s filled with angels of every shape, size, gender and nationality playing their harps and drifting on their own personal cumulous.

Where are we getting this from?

When did this... 

...become this?

I would hope that my guardian angel would look more like Michael than a 12 year old teeny bopper.

Let’s first look at what an angel is. (If I were in a classroom this is where I would pull down one of those screen things and have a pointer)

So an angel is a part of God’s creation. They were created by God for a specific purpose. Believe it or not that purpose is not to help a rag tag baseball team. But we’ll get into that. As part of God’s creation they are beneath God. They aren’t meant to be praised. They aren’t God. They are made, not begotten.

Not only are they a part of creation, but they have been for a really long time. They are something that we are compared to but not something that we become. Just like there will never be another Amanda, the angels that we have are the angels that will be.

I already broke your heart by telling you that the main purpose of angels is not for the purposes of making baseball interesting (far too impossible) so why are they here?

Our guardian angel is a real thing. To what extent I couldn’t tell you but I’m sure I need 2 or 3. They’re present as messengers, as guards and even as warriors. Again I don’t think that puny girl up there is going to do much good against an army full of trained warriors.

God created angels with a purpose. He created them to guard, to guide, to be messengers, to be warriors. He did not create them as robots. As we see in several different records in scripture one of the angels took his responsibility as a perfect creation of God to a place that ultimately caused his downfall. The angel that you and I know as Lucifer was one that was created for a great purpose. He was in the upper shallot and was incredibly wise, incredibly beautiful and incredibly aware of his greatness. It was this awareness, this pride in what God had given him that caused him to believe himself to be like God, to be equal to God. This awareness awoke a desire to be greater than God and the slippery slope of free will descended into that of greed and pride; sin at its worst. This descent included several other angels and created Satan and his demons as we know it today.

God’s creation of angels is one that goes far beyond our understanding. It is unfair to place them as we have; as puny 12 year old girls playing harps, floating on clouds. They are capable of greatness, or even of the absolute forms of evil. They inhabit a role that is far beyond anything that we can properly understand.

And this, my friends, is the letter A.