What was from the beginning
Beloved, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life – for the life was made visible. – From 1 John 1
Remember Clarence Oddbody? He helped George Bailey realize he really had lived a wonderful life. And Bedford Falls did NOT become Pottersville. And George did NOT take his own life. And Clarence really DID receive his wings. And Zuzu Bailey made sure everyone heard the bell that announced it.
Margaret and I were alone for the first time this year on Christmas Eve since 1979, the year we were married, the year before Chris was born on December 17. So we went to church, were mesmerized by the kids’ sharing of the Christmas story, drove around to see Christmas lights highlighted by the “Clark Griswold house of Mahomet,” came home and watched It’s a Wonderful Life.
Were there angels everywhere in our midst? I kinda think so. There are hosts of Bible verses and stories about the work of angels. “Where two are three are gathered,” Jesus says, “there I am too.” And where Jesus is, there the angels are.
In his book Joy to the World, Scott Hahn’s best chapter is “Angels: Echoing Their Joyous Strains.” Perhaps these pure spirits were created on Genesis 1’s first day, created with complete knowledge even including foreknowledge of the Incarnation of Jesus, created with the freedom to choose obedience and devotion to the Creator, or not. “God saw the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness.”
In our history angels appear often “as watchers, guardians, guides, messengers and catalysts. They rescue, visit judgment, go before us, bring God’s word. They are mediators, deliverers, redeemers, warriors, agents of creation, and agents of destruction.” And whatever else they are doing, they are always worshipping. “Worship is what angels do.”
I know angels are “pure spiritual beings.” They are not dead people rising to meet occasions in our lives. But I still think of Aunt Mary and Dad and Grandpa Brummer, and so many others, as my guardian angels. How many times have I not been killed? I can’t count them on two hands, and those are just the times I know about. How many times have I been BLESSED, grabbed the gold ring, found a parking place? Time after time after time. I am quick to credit this wonderful synchronicity to “angels.”
And of course, there’s Clarence. Frank Capra knew how to work up a story, didn’t he? Clarence showed up just in time to bring the power of both great suffering and great love to George Bailey’s incredible life.
What was that he said to George? “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many others’ lives.” Then he showed George just what he meant by that. If George had not born, the druggist spent 20 years in jail. Mr. Martini was thrown out of his house and had to give up his restaurant to gangsters. George’s brother Harry drowned, and all the men died on the warship that Harry would have saved. “Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry!”
And of course the Christmas story would be impossible without the angels. In the Old Testament they were often fearsome, but in the New Testament they become almost our brothers. As Jesus unites heaven and earth, Hahn points out that “shepherds and angels were “singing from the same hymnal.”
In this already-and-not-yet time we live in, we should “learn to live with the angels,” just as Mary and Joseph and Jesus did. They want to help us come together and live holy lives.
Lord, I think of what John wrote. “The life was made visible.” I know there are scales on my eyes, which get thicker each time I turn away from you and look at all kinds of “things.” But you are not only “purely spiritual” any more than you are only “purely physical.” You are BOTH, and you point the way for me to be both too.
http://www.davesandel.net/category/advent-and-christmas-devotions-2018/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archive.php?year=2018
