Angels

Humans have color vision because our eyes contain three types of cone cells. One cone helps us see blue, another to see green, and the third to see red. This is called trichromatic vision. The brain combines signals from these three types of cones to perceive a wide range of colors, allowing humans to distinguish millions of different colors from periwinkle to chartreuse.

There is, however, a rare breed living among us called tetrachro¬mats. They possess a fourth cone, allowing them to see a hundred mil¬lion colors that are invisible to the rest of us. For every color a trichromat sees, a tetrachromat perceives a hundred hues!

I can't help but wonder if we'll get a fifth cone in heaven, enabling us to perceive a billion colors. Or perhaps a sixth, seventh, or hun¬dredth cone! By earthly standards, we'll have extrasensory perception. Everything will smell better, taste better, sound better, feel better, and look better. With our newly glorified senses, we'll hear angel octaves.

Remember when Elisha was surrounded by the Aramean army? He said to his very confused assistant, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his servant's eyes, and it's almost like God created an extra cone. "He looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

Possible Preaching Angle: If our spiritual eyes were opened, what would we see? We'd see what's really happening! We'd see guardian angels, as the scriptures describe them ministering to those who will inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). We'd discern the manifest presence of God, perhaps like Moses who encountered God's glory on the mountain or Isaiah in God’s throne room (Exod. 33:18-23; Isa. 6:1-7). We'd perceive powers and principalities, those unseen forces at work in the world, as Paul warns us about (Eph. 6:12).

It’s never a good thing for an airline to send a passenger on the wrong plane, especially when that passenger is a child. The six-year-old was supposed to fly from Philadelphia to visit his grandmother in Fort Myers, Florida, but ended up on a flight to Orlando instead.

Panic set in for Maria Ramos, the child’s grandmother, after the plane her grandson was initially supposed to be on landed and he wasn’t on it. Ramos began asking, “How did that happen? Did they get him off the plane? The flight attendant – after Mom handed them the paperwork – did they let him go by himself? He jumped in the wrong plane by himself?”

Spirit Airlines personnel informed her that Casper had instead landed in Orlando, 160 miles away. Apparently, the gate agent assigned to escort Casper to his departing flight from Philadelphia accidentally put him on the wrong flight. According to Spirit Airlines, that individual is no longer employed by the airline.

In a statement, Spirit Airlines said, “Any individual whose actions resulted in the incorrect boarding will be held accountable for failing to follow our procedures.” It also reiterated that though the boy was transported to the wrong city, he was accompanied by and under the supervision of a Spirit Airlines employee the entire time.

Ramos was eventually reunited with Casper after she drove to Orlando to pick him up. She already had his luggage, as it made it to Fort Myers on the correct flight. Spirit Airlines offered to reimburse her for the trip, but Ramos said all she wants is answers to her questions.

Possible Preaching Angle:

It seems instructive that it happened on Spirit Airlines, because even when the child seemed to be alone, the Holy Spirit was present to protect the child, even in the face of professional incompetence.

Pastor and author Craig Brian Larson writes:

In January, 2021, as the coronavirus continued to spread, we received concerning news from a family in our church. Jose Alvarado, his wife, Sayra, their son Antonio, and his mother Martha had all caught the virus.

While other family members were largely over it, Jose continued to get worse and he was admitted to the hospital. His symptoms included a fever over 104, uncontrollable coughing, and developing pneumonia. The oxygen level in his blood was dropping quickly, and doctors moved Jose to the intensive care unit the next day.

After a couple of days in ICU, his fever finally broke, but the fluid in his lungs persisted, along with coughing and weakness. Jose continued to fight and do various exercises, and this led to continued improvement over time. After 10 days in ICU, around 3 a.m., Jose saw four angels standing around his bed, two on a side. It was dream-like. He did not see their faces. He had been lying on his chest to drain the liquid from his lungs, but the angels helped him turn over to his back to breathe more easily, and he instantly felt healing.

The angels left, and the nurse came around 5 a.m. to draw blood for daily tests. Jose asked her what happened overnight, why there were so many people in the room. She said no one had been in the room until she came in, and even so only one person is allowed at a time due to COVID protocols. (Hospital rules do not apply to angels!)

After breakfast, the nurse told Jose they were moving him out of ICU to a regular room, since he was doing better. A few days later, the doctor surveyed Jose’s test results and oxygen reading and said, “You’re going home today.” That afternoon he was home with his family eating a delicious meal. Although Jose continued to useoxygen for a few days as he recovered at home, the turnaround in his symptoms was dramatic once the angels intervened.

In an article for Christianity Today Rebecca McLaughlin writes:

I’d just read my four-year-old the story of the angel Gabriel meeting with Mary. I tried not to panic when she said, “I don’t believe that.”

“Well, do you believe that God made you?”

“Yes, I believe that.”

“And do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?”

“Yes.”

“And that he rose from the dead?”

“Yes.”

After more gentle probing, it turned out it was really just the angel that she didn’t buy. But nonetheless, my daughter isn’t alone in her natural skepticism about the supernatural. When we stop to think about it, Christmas stretches our credulity. It comes complete with an angel appearing, a virgin conceiving, a star guiding, and heavenly hosts singing. How can rational, scientifically literate, 21st-century people like us believe such things, when even a child finds them hard to take?

However, to believe in the God of the Bible who created the universe and not to believe in miracles is rather obtuse. It would be like my daughter believing her dad could make bread from scratch (which he can) but that he couldn’t toast a Pop-Tart. In fact, if you are a Christian you are already signed up to believe that the universe and everyone in it is God’s handiwork.

Physicist Jonathan Feng says, “What is truly amazing about the Christian faith is the idea that God made the universe—from quarks to galaxies but at the same time cared enough about us to be born as a human being. To come down, to die and be crucified in the person of Jesus, and to bring forgiveness and new life to broken people.”

Christians believe in Christmas in all its supernatural glory because miracles aren’t hard for God.

Local police are convinced that a driver owes his recent good fortune to divine intervention after a pigeon prevented the person from being cited for speeding. In this particular area of western Germany, offenders are typically identified by the speed cameras installed at traffic lights. But when police reviewed the photo of one particular offender, the driver’s face was obscured by the image of a spread-winged pigeon that happened to swoop in at just the right moment. Referencing Ascension Day on the church calendar, police were quoted as saying “the Holy Ghost must’ve had a plan.”

The driver was spared a fine of 105 euro (about $117) thanks to the pigeon that police referred to as “the feathered guardian angel.” Nonetheless, they hope the driver will take it “as a sign from above” to slow down on the roadway.

Potential Preaching Angles: Sometimes God provides at just the right moment in order to send an unmistakable message of hope. Sometimes an act of mercy is what we need to change our behavior.

Parents and other family members are rejoicing after a three-year-old survived a life-threatening scare.

Police in Stamford responded to the Fairfield Apartments after onlookers reported seeing a small child fall out of a 2nd-story window overlooking the parking lot. According to Stamford Police Sgt. Brian Butler, the child was found after her fall crying and moving around. She survived by landing in a patch of fresh mulch, a feat made all the more impressive considering the considerable height involved. Although it was only a second-story apartment, the architecture of the property meant the window was more like four-to-five stories high.

Butler said the girl was being attended to be two family members, one of which has a partial disability of sight. The fall triggered an investigation with the Department of Children and Families.

The child was taken to Stamford Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, where she's listed in stable condition.

Potential Preaching Angles: With God, a miracle is always possible. When there is life and growth, calamity can be absorbed.

Scott McKnight writes in “The Hum of Angels”:

I was visiting a bird-supplies store when I mentioned to the owner that my wife and I had owned a hummingbird feeder but had never once seen a hummer at the feeder, so we tossed it out. I concluded that there were no hummers near our home.

The shop owner asked where we lived, I told him, and then he said, "They are there. Not only do some of your neighbors have hummers on their feeders, but hummers are all over the village." What he said next was the take-home line: "You just have to have eyes to see them. Once you do, you will see them everywhere. They are small and fast and camouflaged, but they are not that hard to spot."

Eventually we bought a new feeder, filled it, and waited until our eyes got accustomed to the sight of hummers. We now see them everywhere. When other people go on a walk with us, we often observe a hummer—but it is rare that our friends spot one. It takes experience. You need to learn to spot them out of the side of your eyes and acclimate to their habits of zooming and darting and taking shelter on obscure branches and even on telephone lines. But once you've learned to spot a hummer you will see them everywhere because they are everywhere.

Like angels. They, too, are all around us. Few of us have seen one because we first have to learn what we are looking for. In a good book about angels, Martin Israel, quoting a friend, wrote this: "Eternity lies all round us and only a veil prevents us seeing it." The hum of angels surrounds us, and we only need ears to hear it or eyes to see them. Or perhaps a special sense for them. After all, the Bible tells us that Balaam's donkey could see an angel that Balaam himself could not see.

In the Sacred Museum of the Vatican, there is a sixteenth-century sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini entitled "Habakkuk and the Angel." In this masterpiece, Habakkuk is holding a packed bag, as if he is traveling somewhere, and his movement is forward, as if he is walking ahead. However, his movement is impeded by an angel hovering above him, who has grabbed this startled prophet by the hair, as if lifting him to heaven.

There is something about that image that is so apropos to us. Some of us are very much on our own way, walking in a very different direction than God would have us walk. We need to be redirected, to be pulled by the hair, if you will, up into the heavens to see what Habakkuk saw (1:1)—a vision of God. For only a vision of the triune God can produce this kind of … living, walking, moving forward, lifted high … kind of faith.