Angels? Where?
By Holly Yeuell
Holly serves as Director of Christian Education for the Episcopal Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Indian Springs, Alabama, USA. She is also the Middle School teacher for Hilltop Montessori School in Mt. Laurel, Alabama.

Children seem to like angels. I have a month's worth of angel books to read to them in our Children's Worship (in fact, it's been easier to find books about angels than about Jesus). The children delight in finding the angel on just about every page of Brian Wildsmith's gorgeous books. We have angel figures on the walls and an angel advent wreath. Angels figure in several of our stories about St. Francis, the patron of our parish. It intrigues me that the children never question the validity of angels. They seem happy to assume that angels exist and act in our lives at God's direction. This phenomenon reminds me of a story about how children leave heaven when they're born and eventually forget what heaven is like as they grow older. Perhaps our children used to play and sing with angels before they came to us, and so take angels for granted in their young and tender years.

Just off the top of my head, I know at least four people who have had personal experiences with angels. These weren't quite the same experiences as those Biblical shepherds had, no heavens breaking open with light and song. In two cases, the angels were invisible and silent, and in the other two, took the form of ordinary yet mysterious humans. One essential about angels is their timing. In each of these cases, too lengthy and personal to recount here, the angels reached into our human world with a touch, a word, a redirection, at a time of crisis just when the human involved was incapable of self-help. These angels came to aid both children and adults, but adults in such extreme vulnerability as to render them childlike. The angels were recognized immediately by some, but not until later reflection by others. Once realized, though, there was no doubt on anyone's part. An angel had helped each of my friends, momentarily and unforgettably connecting each to the reality of God's realm. It was like the shepherds' experience after all; the heavens cracked open for a flashing moment of time and the transforming song of love for that person was whispered.

Have you ever noticed how Gabriel's first words are always, "Don't be afraid?" Between you and me, I've always been glad that I wasn't one of those shepherds, or Mary, or Zachariah, or the women at the tomb. I would have been scared out of my wits and likely fainted if I encountered a blazing personage from another realm of being. Biblical people were very brave, especially considering that they didn't even get to warm up watching Spielberg effects before seeing the real thing. My friends, I think, felt that fear even in their much tamer encounters. They felt a sudden sense of powerlessness, or finitude, in awe of these God-reflecting beings. The Bible describes a startling and a stunning surprise, like being caught in the headlights on a dark night. The immediacy of angels causes alarm as well. Their appearance demands attention to the situation at hand without option for preparation or postponement, attending to the ultimacy of God's time as well as God's power.

Are the angels of the Bible any relation to the angels of today? While I don't know anyone who has seen an angel who was bringing a history making message from God, there are nonetheless common elements in angel stories of then and now.
Angels deal with our anxiety. If we are open to God's presence and will, as with the faith of a child, angels will help us when we truly need aid. Beyond the fear is a sense of deep humility, followed by even deeper gratitude. Who are any of us to receive the blessing of an angel's assuring care? Who are we? We are none other than the beloved children of God.

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