Manageable,
Comfortable, Irrelevant
Do not be afraid…
Luke 1:13, 30
Janet noticed a cute little cherub
sitting among the shelf of knick-knacks. She picked it up, turning it
in her hands, noticing the fine detail in the wings and features of
the little angel. She decided to purchase it for a friend of hers,
hoping to encourage her with this image of God’s angelic servants.
Taking the figurine to the cashier, she commented on how wonderful it
was to have angels around to remind us of their protection. The
cashier’s response wasn’t what she’d expected…nor did she
find it meeting her concept of angels.
“That cute little figurine doesn’t
fit Scripture’s account of the real thing,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Janet asked.
“When you read the account of
Gabriel’s appearance in the first chapter of Luke you don’t
exactly picture some chubby-cheeked imp with his head cradled in his
hands. God’s Word says Zechariah was ‘gripped with fear’
when he saw Gabriel! Angels are imposing. We’ve just made them
acceptable by relegating them to cute-as-a-button
status.”
“I never thought of it that way,”
Janet said, amazed by the stark contrast in the cashier’s
statement, and what she’d always thought. She set the figurine back
on the shelf, realizing she’d just had a revelation. She could
never return to her previously held concept of angels again.
†
Angels, when presenting themselves to
humanity, elicit an immediate response of fear. If this were not so
they would not need to proclaim, “Fear not” or “Do not be
afraid” when physically appearing in our world. This does not fit
the image we foster and pass along to our children and others when we
display cute little cherubs.
Like everything else we fail to
understand or can’t control, we make angels manageable and
comfortable, rendering them irrelevant so we don’t have to
contemplate reality.
Our perception has no effect on
reality. God’s angels are formidable and ferocious. We should be
thankful, for our enemy isn’t a little red figure with a pointed
little tail and horns.
Prayer
“LORD God
of angel armies, I thank You that Your angels are imposing, great and
mighty warriors, instead of tiny little chubby cheeked imps floating
on clouds. May they always strike fear in our hearts until they
proclaim, ‘Do not be afraid.’ Amen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment