Christmas Angels

Do angels exist?Where can we find angels? Angels are not just invisible, celestial beings; we can find angels here on earth and very close to home, too.The way angels are depicted today is very different from angels that appear in the Old Testament and the New Testament.Angels in the Old and New Testament could appear, flaming sword in hand, to dispense judgment.In the Christmas story, angels appear in three places, and make life-changing announcements.Be kind to strangers, for you don’t know angels might appear in human form too. ‘The Cobbler And His Guests’ is one story that illustrates this.This Christmas let’s make time to bring to mind with gratitude those messengers, challengers, and those comforters in human, earthly form that have touched and blessed our lives.As Christmas approaches, we encounter angels everywhere — on top of Christmas trees, on greeting cards, on wrapping paper. Then we have traditional Christmas carols featuring themWriter and personal action coach Dr Marguerite Theophil tells us that while these angels are visually depicted as cute and cuddly babies, or slender adults draped in flowing robes, singing or playing musical instruments, they have little in common with the angels of the Old Testament or even the New Testament. Those angels are awe-inspiring, and their first words often are … “Fear not!” The Book of Hebrews in the Bible says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”A beautiful old Christmas story, ‘The Cobbler and His Guest’, illustrates this. It tells of a kind old shoemaker, loved by all his neighbours. One Christmas Eve, alone in his little shop, reading of the visit of the wise men to the infant Jesus, and of the gifts they carried, he said to himself, “If tomorrow were the first Christmas, I would gift the Christ Child these, my finest work, two beautiful little shoes of softest snow-white leather…. But I’m a foolish old man; the Master has no need for my poor gifts.”Asleep that night, he heard a voice saying: “Martin, you have longed to see me. Tomorrow I shall pass by your window. Bid me enter, I shall be your guest and sit at your table.”Waking early, he took up his vigil at the window. All through the day, he saw and invited in and fed an old street sweeper, then a poor, miserably clothed woman carrying a baby with no shoes, to whom he gifted his lovely white pair, and many other needy souls — but his longed-for Guest did not appear. At last, Martin went to bed. “It was only a dream,” he sighed. “I hoped and believed, but He has not come.”Suddenly, the room was flooded with a glorious light and to the cobbler’s astonishment there appeared before him, one by one, all the people whom he had welcomed in during the day. Each one smiled at him and asked, “Have you not seen me? Did I not sit at your table?” and vanished. Not just angels, we can encounter the Divine too, in human form. But we may not really be ready to see other humans in this role. This Christmas, in a year otherwise marked by chaos, let’s make time to bring to mind with gratitude those messengers, those challengers, those comforters in human, earthly form that have touched and blessed our lives.Narration: Mona MehtaAudio production: Basant Singhal