July 2022
Nougat 9
They say ‘belief kills and belief cures’, usually in response to what seems to be bizarre or inexplicable. Today’s Holy Nougat
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” Romans 8:38 NLT
So many of us hesitate to speak about angels or demons. Yet, ironically, we join the wagon in removing the ‘mystique’ from the concept of angels by trivializing their presence. I know, I know; some of that comes from a misinterpretation of Hebrews 13:2. We semi-gloss over the treat strangers well and focus on angels in disguise.
And some of us do believe in angels and have seen them; we might even had a Johannine response, where we fell on our face in worship. But angels are not the subject of our worship ever (or as my godgranny would say ‘nonetall’). For angels are God’s emissaries. And their generic name carries the same root as evangelist. And in one sense the roles are similar – messengers from God to humanity. The difference is, angels are divine beings.
From Isaiah 6 and Luke 2, we know that one role of angels is worship. In both contexts, humans had the experience of hearing the best choir of all times giving praise to God. Their key anthems: God’s holiness and glory! And the Lucan pericope extends the vocal image to include a message of peace and goodwill for humanity. Now that’s the irony – the angels were heralding Jesus’ birth! They began their song with glory and concluded with the message of peace.
So, when we overlay Jesus being God’s Love enfleshed; we realize that God’s Love allows the angels to see God’s glory fulfilled and that with God’s love there is scope for world peace! That was their message.
But a message such as that should not then result in the need to assure us that God’s love transcends the presence of angels, should it? So I suspect that there’s more to it. And I am opting to look at Isaiah’s experience. In Isaiah 6, our hero had an extraordinary vision of God’s glory. He saw God’s lower half so to speak as the train of God’s ‘robe’ could scarcely be contained in the temple.
I pause by the proverbial rabbit hole long enough to note that the train (ie the cape on a king’s garb) worn by royalty varied in length as per their conquests. So a train which filled the temple in Jerusalem would have been excessively long to meet the 150*90*50 foot dimensions with the highest point being approximately 20 stories high according to Jewish virtual library. Isaiah would only have sensed that it was God, for God’s throne would probably been the height of the building to accommodate the train.
I mentioned the dimensions and grandeur to indicate that the number of angels in worship would probably have been many! This was a royal jubilee celebration! And for all those angels in worship before the throne of God, God’s love makes time for each of us!
Individually!
No exceptions!
I choose to receive and bask in a love so amazing. Yes Lord, I do believe!
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May all we seek be found in Christ