"The angels keep their ancient places-
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis ye, your estranged faces
That miss the many-splendored thing."
~Frances Thompson, The Kingdom of God

This past Sunday in worship, we invited people to think about the story of Christmas and the various characters and elements of this familiar and mysterious telling that shapes our faith. The question we asked people to consider was this: "Where is love shown by Mary, Joseph, the Magi, the shepherds? Where is love shown by the Star of Bethlehem, the sheep and other animals present in the stable? Where is love in the many journeys taken?" It became a wonderful way to hear people's ideas of the self-giving love that is at the root of our faith tradition.

All Sunday afternoon something kept nagging at me as I thought back about the morning's worship. And then it hit me: We had forgotten the angels! We had left out the messengers of God that had startled the shepherds, foretold the journey to both Mary and Joseph, those winged ones that hover in every artist's rendering of the manger. We had not asked: Where is the love shown by the angels?

I am not sure what to make of this omission. Perhaps we were focusing on the concrete, the visible. And yet so much of our life is moved by the invisible, the unseen forces that guide us and connect us. The idea of angels does not fit our rational mind. And yet I know that there are messengers of God all around. Some I see every day in the faces of people I know and love. Another messenger is present in the red-tailed hawk that flies across my path awakening me to beauty and out of anxiety. And then there is the rare moment when a stranger looks into our eyes with a presence that causes us to stop and remember who we are, to be fully present in the gift of the moment. This messenger of God, this angel, startles us into the gospel story of our own lives by their attention to us. It is a wake up call, much like the one offered to the shepherds who could have stayed put tending sheep but instead chose a journey that would change their lives forever. That is the love shown by angels.

Today I will try not to forget.

"For God will command the angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."  Psalm 91:11,12