I can remember being very pleased (I think aged about 9) to be selected as an angel in a school play because my experience until then told me that angels had to have long flowing blonde hair and be generally sparkling (They didn’t have national health glasses, ears that stuck out and a squint, as I did).
I was even more pleased to discover later that Gabriel was a man!
Angels (male and female) are integral to the Christmas story. (That’s why we have angels on the top of our Christmas trees). The angels deliver messages from God:
First of all, to Zechariah – to tell him that he and his wife are to be the parents of John, who will “prepare the way”; then, six months later to a young woman called Mary, who is to give birth to the promised Messiah; then to Joseph, Mary’s husband-to-be, to give him the same message (that Mary will bear the child of God) ; and then nine months later to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem to tell them that the Saviour has arrived!
But delivering messages is not the angels’ only function. In fact, it may actually be secondary to their primary activity in heaven – that of praise and worship.
When the prophet Isaiah was transported into the throne room of God he witnessed the worship of the angels. (Isaiah 6:3).
When John was given a glimpse of heaven he saw the angels declaring God’s holiness and calling on the redeemed to worship. (Revelation 4:11, 5:12).
In the Christmas story the angels assemble as a huge and glorious choir to sing, to play, to celebrate and to adore!
So - my favourite Christmas carol is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. As I sing it my heart is lifted to join the angels in praise. I find that I almost float with them - and they remind me that Jesus, the Son of God, who came from heaven to give his life that I might live, is ever and always deserving of my worship.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With the angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
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