Monday, November 10, 2008

Thankful for: Angels

image But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

I was listening to a lecture by N.T. Wright this morning and he made a reference to the above verse. He said that maybe the only way we see angels is through tears. I believe that could be true.

The literal translation of the word angel from the original language is messenger. As I've shed tears, many "angels" have appeared to us with messages of hope and compassion. I'm grateful for those angels.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I went through years of thinking that, yeah, there were apparently angels in Bible days--both OT and NT make references, but that they no longer interacted with us on a level we can realize their presence. What the truth of that is, I don't know.

I had a major surgery in '83. Later in the day, still knocked out, I half opened my eyes ever-so-briefly whenever a visitor or nurse spoke to me. Each time, I was convinced that a crowd of people had gathered in my private room. Some of them I recognized, but most of the faces were unclear. There was no doubt in my drugged mind that maybe as many as 25 people were standing against the wall opposite my bed, and that perception gave me great comfort.

When I woke up, finally, in the evening, one lone friend sat next to the bed. I asked her if everyone else had gone home; she looked at me with concern and assured me no one else had been there in the hour since she had arrived. Then I noticed that there was no room for a crowd to stand against the wall opposite the bed.

Someone suggested, later, that many people had probably been there "in spirit," and that may explain what I "saw." Or maybe some were angels. All I know for sure is that the perception was repeated several times, and I found great comfort in the "presence" and still consider it to have been a gift from God.