Day 49

 

Angels

 

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

 

Matthew 18:10

 

Starting an argument with the guy who just handed you a job application. wouldn't seem to be the most intelligent thing to do but that is what he had done. I wasn't terribly surprised though because I remembered him from years before. It was also clear he did not remember me.

 

I first met him when he had visited a church where I was youth minister. He filled out a visitors card and I went to his apartment to visit him and invite him back to church. It was a strange visit.

 

He had a map of the world prominently displayed on a wall with push pins all over it. I asked him what the pins were for and he explained it to me. He was tracking fleet movements he said. The red pins represented the Soviet Union ships and the blue pins represented the United States ships. Exactly how he knew where the ships were, ours or theirs, I had no idea. What he planned to do with this information was not clear either. He was only getting started.

 

He had a collection of Elvis's gold records. (Elvis Presley not Elvis Costello or I might have been a little more impressed). There is nothing really strange with that, Elvis has a lot of fans. He also had an Elvis scrap book. Nothing strange with that either. He felt compelled to show me his Elvis scrap book. Now it was getting a little weird. On the last page of the scrap book was a picture of dead Elvis lying in state awaiting burial.

 

He showed me the picture and said quite seriously, "I don't think this is him. Look how pale he is. Elvis was never that pale."

 

"You could be right," I said. What I was thinking was, "Of course he's pale. It's hard to have a rosy glow when you are stone cold dead."

 

Now, about 12 years later, I was working at a Christian bookstore and he was looking for a job. I handed him the application and he said to me, "Y'all shouldn't be selling those angel figurines because they are all women. Angels aren't women; they are men."

 

First of all I had no control over what we sold other than actually ringing it up at the register. Secondly I was not too fond of the figurines myself. I don't know why the angels had to look like babes from Baywatch with wings. They were more discreetly dressed being angels, not lifeguards, but I still found it distasteful.

 

It was his comment that angels were men that got me. So I told him, "Setting aside the fact that angels are not male or female but angels, what makes you think that all angels are male?"

 

"Because they all have guy names," he said. "Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer are all guy names."

 

"Aren't there thousands of angels?" I asked. He affirmed that there were. I continued, "That's only 3 names. How do we know that all the rest of them aren't named Suzy 1, Suzy 2, and Suzy 3 and so on?"

 

He went away vowing to never work at the store unless it got rid of the women angels.

 

The word angel in Greek and Hebrew literally means messenger. They are celestial, super natural beings that are neither male nor female. They preform various tasks and one of their primary being God's messengers. This is most prominently displayed with the angel's message about the birth of Jesus. Angels will also assist God in the time of judgment and on occasion minister to God's people when they are in need. A phrase you often hear is "guardian angel." Several times  we see angels in this role. Michael is the guardian angel for Daniel (Daniel 10:13). Angels guarded Elisha from the Arameans (2 Kings 6:8-23). I guess the guys who made  the Baywatch angel figurines were just making life guardian angels.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 18:1-6, 10-14

 

• What is the pathway to greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven?
• What is the importance of their angels "always seeing the face of my Father in heaven"?
• What is the Father not willing to do?