Without doubt my childhood is one of the greatest treasures ever given me. Even though the precious experience is in my past, I remember it regularly, and in remembering, celebrate the parents, siblings and God who would conspire to give me such a gift.
I’ve often told my mother that if my life ended today and God allowed me to simply live it over and over again, that would be heaven for me. I mean it, too. To go from childhood to the glories of Sandi and then on to my children….I have so much to be thankful for.
The memories of my childhood include innumerable small items. Some of them are tangible; some of them not. I can’t go outside and smell an early, dark winter morning without instantly being transported back to the Middle School bus stop. And I’ll occasionally happen upon an old toy that my brother and I might have played with for hours. The triggered longing is deliciously painful, and certain to disappear as quickly as it came.
Earlier this year I came across a picture, which used to hang above the bunk beds that my brother and I shared. I felt the same tantalizingly sad ache. The painting depicts two children reaching out from the safety of a bridge to pick flowers that are growing along the banks of a rapidly flowing stream. Behind them an angel stands protectively- their guardian.
That image captures much of what I think of when I consider the work of angels. While scripture speaks of these spiritual giants as regulating nature, guarding nations and peoples, fighting demonic battles and carrying the throne of God about on their shoulders, when I think of angels, I think of guardians- for me and those I love.
Church tradition seems consistently unanimous in teaching that every individual (if not every, then every individual who belongs to God) has their own guardian angel. This seems to be the popular belief of many of the Jews at the time of the Incarnation. Of course this doesn’t make it true, but it is interesting. We see evidence of this folk belief in the story of Peter’s angelic release from prison. When the other apostles were told that he was at the door, they suggested that it might be “his angel.”
Christ explicitly taught that children “have” angelic guardians when he said in Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
The early church saw great significance in the word “their.” The angels were their angels. The early interpreters reasoned that this must mean that the angels were attached or assigned in some way to the individual children.
Other’s who came later on, weren’t so sure. They pointed out that scripture teaches that in some cases a single angelic person was given charge of a whole nation- whether for protection or judgment; while at other times multiple angels seemed to be involved with one individual. John Calvin didn’t see that it much mattered. He wrote, "For if the fact that all the heavenly host are keeping watch for his safety will not satisfy a man, I do not see what benefit he could derive from knowing that one angel has been given to him as his especial guardian."
What all Christians unite in affirming is the truth proclaimed in Psalm 91 "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Whether this involves an individual guardian or a host of guardians is inconsequential. My family and I should take great comfort and courage in knowing that our elder fellow servants are always at hand.
I’ve often told my mother that if my life ended today and God allowed me to simply live it over and over again, that would be heaven for me. I mean it, too. To go from childhood to the glories of Sandi and then on to my children….I have so much to be thankful for.
The memories of my childhood include innumerable small items. Some of them are tangible; some of them not. I can’t go outside and smell an early, dark winter morning without instantly being transported back to the Middle School bus stop. And I’ll occasionally happen upon an old toy that my brother and I might have played with for hours. The triggered longing is deliciously painful, and certain to disappear as quickly as it came.
Earlier this year I came across a picture, which used to hang above the bunk beds that my brother and I shared. I felt the same tantalizingly sad ache. The painting depicts two children reaching out from the safety of a bridge to pick flowers that are growing along the banks of a rapidly flowing stream. Behind them an angel stands protectively- their guardian.
That image captures much of what I think of when I consider the work of angels. While scripture speaks of these spiritual giants as regulating nature, guarding nations and peoples, fighting demonic battles and carrying the throne of God about on their shoulders, when I think of angels, I think of guardians- for me and those I love.
Church tradition seems consistently unanimous in teaching that every individual (if not every, then every individual who belongs to God) has their own guardian angel. This seems to be the popular belief of many of the Jews at the time of the Incarnation. Of course this doesn’t make it true, but it is interesting. We see evidence of this folk belief in the story of Peter’s angelic release from prison. When the other apostles were told that he was at the door, they suggested that it might be “his angel.”
Christ explicitly taught that children “have” angelic guardians when he said in Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
The early church saw great significance in the word “their.” The angels were their angels. The early interpreters reasoned that this must mean that the angels were attached or assigned in some way to the individual children.
Other’s who came later on, weren’t so sure. They pointed out that scripture teaches that in some cases a single angelic person was given charge of a whole nation- whether for protection or judgment; while at other times multiple angels seemed to be involved with one individual. John Calvin didn’t see that it much mattered. He wrote, "For if the fact that all the heavenly host are keeping watch for his safety will not satisfy a man, I do not see what benefit he could derive from knowing that one angel has been given to him as his especial guardian."
What all Christians unite in affirming is the truth proclaimed in Psalm 91 "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Whether this involves an individual guardian or a host of guardians is inconsequential. My family and I should take great comfort and courage in knowing that our elder fellow servants are always at hand.
2 comments:
Dear Phil,
It is seriously time for you to back away from the reverie and take a few months studying logic and mathematics. Like a Derridean you have fallen in love with your own rhetoric; I do believe that with a twist here and a crank there you could be on the conspiracy page of the month. I suggest that you print out your past blogs and examine them for the ways in which they are developed and the rhetoric involved.
Happy Mikelmas
...back away from the reverie.
Hmmm; that hardly sounds like wise counsel. Thanks, though.
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