The Lord will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:11)
We are having a conversation in our house about grandchildren and angels. How does one explain angels to a four or five year-old? In my older years I have learned to leave the complicated theological conversations with our younger grandchildren to Nana (Betsy). Her go-to strategy is to find a storybook on the subject and then to listen for the child's further questions, worries, or insights. So a book titled Angels Watching Over Me was recently delivered to our house. The jury is still out on whether it will receive the Lutheran seal of approval.
Angels that seem so natural and easy on Christmas Eve become more complicated as other Bible references - Old and New Testament - are studied. It is one thing to think about angels in the context of bible stories. It is quite another matter to respond to a child's today questions: Where are the angels now? What are they doing? Are they watching over me? How do you know?
Lest we think that these are just juvenile inquiries, consider Martin Luther's Small Catechism encouragement for us to pray his morning and evening prayers concluding with this confident petition: "Let your holy angels be with us, so that the wicked foe may have no power over us."
There are almost 300 references to angels in the Bible. Angels even have their own group of hymns in the ELW - seven of them. That's the same number of hymns as appear under the topic Baptism! And the angel hymns are more singable!
One brief devotional piece is not going to solve the puzzle of the angels, nor will it answer adequately any one or all of our grandchildren’s questions. (Nana is still working on that.) But this I know and believe: there is much about God and God's relationship with humankind that is a mystery, a wonderful mystery to us. Guided in faith by the Holy Spirit, human beings from the beginning have pondered, imagined, experienced and written about messengers from God. These messengers/angels were able to cross the great divide between human beings and the Creator; guiding, intervening, and protecting God's children just as God would want it.
Faith calls for help from outside of ourselves. When Jesus the Christ came among us, that help from outside of ourselves took on a whole new reality. What had been perceived as a great divide was closed with a healing, forgiving, life-saving touch. As St. Paul has written, now nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:39
So what is left for the angels? Have they become obsolete? Have they nothing left to do? The answer to those questions is wrapped up in the wonderful mystery of God’s grace to us. I am good with that, and I am glad that the authors of Angels Watching Over Me left all of the angel questions stated, but unanswered; except for this recurring verse:
God, thank you for angels that watch over me. For keeping me safe from the things I can't see. For all of my lifetime, I'll rest with this thought - There are angels around me. God loves me a lot!1
Indeed. Amen.
1: Angels Watching Over Me
http://www.christianbook.com/angels-watching-over-me/lynn-hodges/9780310728160/pd/728161
by Lynn Hodges & Sue Buchanan
Contributed by Bishop Roy Riley
Monday August 10, 2015
Liturgical Year B: Week 37
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading: Proper14
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost