I was looking in the Dollar Tree the other day and there was a large display of angels. Big ones, small ones, delicate ones, black ones, white ones, goofy ones – just about every kind of angel one could think of.
Of course, the only one they didn’t have were avenging angels like the Bible talks about. Those were no one to mess around with.
It seems that people love the idea of these ephemeral creatures flittering about with sweet sad eyes and blonde hair, creatures who could do no harm.
You remember that one angel killed the entire Assyrian army in the Old Testament, and one angel took all of the first born of the entire nation of Egypt.
These were tough angels, not little fairy creatures in the Precious Moments case. These characters were frightening.
I suppose that the character played by John Travolta in the movie Michael, in some ways, was more like an angel than any other. His angel was strong and in control and didn’t give a flip what others thought about him. Not that his was necessarily a biblical angel.
It was just that his angel seemed more in charge than so many.
In Hebrews 1, the writer says that angels were never intended to be a focal point of God’s creation. They were meant to be messengers, winds, flames of fire, anything else he wanted them to be; not focal points.
They are the wrapper that brought the present, not the present. They are the envelope that brought the message, not the message. It is kind of like falling in love with the postal carrier who brought you the letters from your wife.
Angels are just messengers designed to bring Jesus and his will into being. They are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. They serve us, which is hard to comprehend.
But, we do not worship them. We merely accept them as God’s messengers, his winds and flames of fire.
I guess there is nothing wrong with small representations of angels, any more than small representations of all of God’s people throughout the Old Testament.
It is when we get to worshipping them and placing them co-equal with Jesus that problems arise. Nothing of God’s creation is worth anything without God and outside of his plan. And with the plan of God ruling in our lives, everything will be good.
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