The Angels Response

The girls and I have been going through a scripture reading plan this advent season called God With Us. We’ve looked at things like the promise of His coming and reason for His coming; this last section leading up to Christmas Day is surrounding the response to His coming. We’ve looked at Mary’s response (“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...” Luke 1:46–47) and at the shepherds’ response (“And they went with haste and found the baby...they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child...the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God...” Luke 2:8–20).

Today we looked at the angels’ response. I don’t think I have ever really sat down and considered specifically how the angels responded to God coming to earth and becoming human. What a striking meditation, and I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts.

The angels had a very unique perspective: They knew the glory of God; they had seen Him face-to-face and actively live to work out His will--They knew His holiness, His power, His beauty, His wrath, His love, His worth...His undeniable deity. And they also knew humanity’s lack of all of the above; they saw our rebellion against God, our hatred for His ways, our denial of His being. They saw the vastness of the gap between God and man.

And then they watched as the One True Living God stepped across this vast chasm and became a man to save us.

And for the first time, He was "made a little lower than the heavenly beings." (Psalm 8:5)
 
It says at the proclamation of His birth in Luke 2:13, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God...” And today as I considered this unique view they held I wondered if perhaps their understanding of the utter depth of the love and meekness and wonder of God opened up to them in an astounding way; if perhaps they had awaited with utter curiosity and awe to see what the fulfilling of this promise they had had the privilege of delivering to Mary would look like; and if perhaps before the songs of praise rang out, there was a gasp.

I bet the worship burst out of them with greater force than it does in Psalm 29:9.

I can think of no greater messengers to bring the good news to humanity.

"Hear the angels sing"

It’s the Christmas season. While usually one of my favorite times in my Christian world, this season I feel like I have sort of let it pass me by. Not out of the typical things that distract my vision from the deity of Christ and His arrival on earth--such as busyness or focus on secular tradition--but instead, the immense physical and emotion strain I am under has pulled my gaze toward myself and my distinct desperation to survive another day; drained of energy and strength, I find myself barely able to hold myself together as I clumsily sway between fatigued and barely functional with no apparent way out.

It is a painful realization, really. To find that after almost 10 years, I still cling to myself in the trenches instead of clinging to God...Why do I have to crawl along the gravel road until my knees are torn up and my blood pours before I finally just curl up in the hand of the Lord and let Him be enough for me? How many times, how deep a hole, how sharp the ground?

But God is always gracious, not just some of the time when I might deserve it. He is always enough, not just when I’ve got something to bring to the table. He is always loving, not just when I’m lovable. And Christmas is all about that...the reality of God’s compassion, His grace, His sufficiency, His love made visible in the neatly swaddled, yet unexpected, form of the Christ child--Deity in human form; to die and bring us life. Therefore, it is fitting that the words that lift me up today and fill me with hope for tomorrow come from a Christmas carol. I have heard it a million times and yet never really listened to the words (from It Came Upon a Midnight Clear):

“And you, beneath life’s crushing load
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow.
Look now for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!”

There is rest for me from what crushes, bends and pains me; there is peace for me beside the road that wearies me; there is Jesus--the glorious peace-giver, Lord and Savior and King, the bringer of goodwill. Oh that I would stop my trudging steps and listen to the angels proclaim Him, His glory and His promise; oh that my weakness would not cause me to miss the glorious sound of His proclamation and His coming; oh that my heart would not clamor to beat with any life other that the one made new by this Jesus whom we celebrate this Christmas season.

May I respond to the invitation in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” May I join the shepherds to go and gaze upon this God/man! May I not let this season pass me by without marveling and rejoicing in the one who came to save. May I find rest beside my weary road as I tune my ears to the angels’ songs of praise. And, if my voice is released from whatever ails me, may it join those of the hosts of heaven as they pour out praise this Christmas Day.