Kelli is putting together Nativity costumes for the kids who will be singing at one of their church’s services. I think of all the Halloween costumes and Nativity costumes I have put together over the years. In the first photo Kelli was a fairy and the girls behind her more likely angels (note the halos). Angels have been front and center in every Christmas pageant I’ve ever been at. They’re always adorable little children dressed in white, donning wings and halos.
I don’t know what you think of angels, but the image of adorable little cherubs is not included in the Scriptures. We’ve had to soften their image way down for kids (and maybe even for adults). In Matthew and Luke, angels appeared to Zechariah the priest, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. John Indermark emphasized their important role in his book, Setting the Christmas Stage: “In the Bible, visits of angels bring revelations of detours ahead, of major changes impending, of lives and destinies soon to be impacted. Little wonder then that a common initial reaction to the flapping of angel wings in the biblical texts is fear.”
Encounters with angels brought terror and confusion, coming at difficult times: for Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph, the stigma of barrenness and unwed pregnancy was real. Angels also came to lowly shepherds to announce peace in a world that was far from peaceful. Indermark reminds us that any word from angels required faith and trust: “trusting the God-gracing word in the dark when we cannot see everything around us and before us, when fears still beset us.”
I’m not sure that I’ve ever had an encounter with an angel, but once I was awakened three times in a dream that changed me profoundly as I anticipated a difficult weekend. The message was clear: “Be at peace; go in peace; live in peace.” I so needed to trust that message for that time. The painting titled “Nativity” by Brian Kershisnik seems to emphasize how overwhelming the presence of angels was, at least for poor Joseph. I imagine he is sitting there, exhausted by all that has happened, still remembering how an angel rescued him from the impending doom of divorce. Think of what he would have missed out on if he hadn’t listened!
