Angels Among Us

Have you ever seen an angel? Some have shared stories of glowing winged images appearing to them delivering a message. I am not arguing the validity of these experiences, I just haven’t personally seen that kind of image. But I do believe I have seen an angel.

Probably 45 years ago (I can’t remember exactly) Pam and I had the opportunity to attend a Billy Graham School of Evangelism in Toronto, Ontario through a generous scholarship granted to a young pastor of a very small church. We had hotel accommodations and daily training sessions (with Billy Graham personally leading one of the sessions.) In the evenings, we attended crusade services, first at Mapleleaf Gardens then at the Toronto Blue Jays ballpark. It was a once in a lifetime experience for a young pastoral couple still wet behind their ears.

Imagine two small town bumpkins who outside of a quick drive through Manhattan and a side trip to the Statue of Liberty on their honeymoon, lived in towns with populations under 5,000 and were totally ignorant of public transportation. Finding ourselves in the metropolis of Toronto, we thought it would be wise for us to utilize the public transportation available to us rather than navigate the traffic to our evening venues.

I did a little research about angelic appearances in the Bible.  This is not an exhaustive scholarly study, just my investigation into the subject as I look at the scriptures. In Isaiah, angels (seraphim) had six wings that are described in Isaiah 6:1ff. When Jesus was born, a host of angels announced His birth, and in my mind, most likely appeared as winged messengers. I even imagine that when the women discovered the empty tomb, they had a dialogue with an angel, possibly fitting the glowing, winged image. And there are more if we would delve into the subject more deeply.

I also know that many times angels appear in the Bible in human form. Two angels appeared to Lot and his wife, warning them to flee Sodom. They most likely appeared as men. Three angels appeared to Abraham to promise him a son. These included the angel of the Lord. Abraham and Sarai prepared a meal for them (Isaiah 18). Again, if we investigated further, we could cite other examples. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”.

Back to Toronto. Returning to our hotel late at night amid revelers on the street, men catcalling at women, etc. can be quite intimidating. An African-American woman dressed all in white befriended us on the bus, probably noticing our trepidation. She told us to get off at the next stop and make our connection. She, however, was getting off at the stop before us. We thanked her and watched her get off the bus and watched diligently as she crossed the street. As we did, we both saw our “angel” disappear! No one will ever convince us otherwise that we saw an angel, assigned to two rural bumpkins in the Big City.

There ARE angels among us. Keep your eyes open. We are commanded to entertain them. They may or may not have wings. But they definitely do have assignments.