My brother has angels. Everybody in my family knows this. If Mama, Daddy, Austin and I all got together and we had to vote on who in the group should probably be dead, it's him. We've all had our close calls, but he takes the cake. I won't tell you all the incidents in which his life has been unexplainably preserved (I probably don't actually know about all of them) but I will say they range from shop and farm accidents to motorcycle and car wrecks. We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago in which he said, "If I'm still alive today, it's not for lack of opportunity to be dead." The take-away from this is that there's a reason Austin has a legion of angels following him around. He has something really big ahead of him. I believe God has a special mission in mind for my little brother and I cannot wait to see what it is!
The Christmas season is officially here (hence the red font) and I want to challenge you all to start reading the Christmas story in Luke 1 instead of Luke 2. It's the only Gospel that offers us a glimpse of what it looks like to prepare and wait for the birth of Jesus. Some of the things you'll notice about this preparation are that
1. There's a really significant wait time. The Jews had received no spiritual revelation for almost 400 years. Think about that. That's about how much time passes between the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus. America is barely half that old.
2. There's a couple of faithful prayer warriors still barely clinging to hope. If you want to know what waiting on God without seeing Him looks like, ask Zachariah and Elizabeth. Esther and the Jews in Susa were not hearing from God directly, but at least there were other prophets in the world who were. Zachariah was a priest in the temple so one would think he'd have a direct line to Yahweh, but nobody was hearing from God anywhere. And
3. Bonus! There's even more angels in this story than we usually remember. In fact, Gabriel's pretty busy making house calls about babies. Heads up, ladies. If Gabriel shows up at your house, you're probably pregnant.
Today, I want to focus on the angels. I'm pretty convinced Gabriel and the heavenly host didn't make their birth announcements and then disappear into the sky. They stuck around. If my little brother has a legion of angels guarding his life, I can only imagine what sort of holy war must have been going on in the ten foot diameter surrounding Elizabeth, Mary and their children for the rest of their lives. But let me take this one step further; we know there were plenty of angels around after John and Jesus were born, but how often do we consider the angels that had to prepare Elizabeth and Mary for their special mission? Until recently, I've never even contemplated how many angels were contending for Elizabeth and Mary before they got pregnant. Mary was a young girl, but Elizabeth had reached old age by the time Gabriel told her husband that her prayers for a child were being heard. A lifetime is a long time to pray and not see fruit. I get frustrated when I don't see fruit after a couple of weeks, sometimes days. Yet Elizabeth (her name means 'God is abundant' by the way) knew her identity in Christ and never let go of that. I don't think she hung on alone.
Just like Elizabeth's waiting to see fruit from her prayers, revelation can take a long time to come. The church calendar only dedicates a few weeks to Advent; imagine waiting with that kind anticipation for years. But also like Gabriel's visit to Zachariah, once it comes, it can show up in a big way. Advent has been particularly special for me this year. I'm finally getting answers to some questions I've been trying to process since my baptism back in 2014. A lot of things came to light then and it's taken about two and half years for my eyes to adjust. As I go through my Advent devotionals, I'm learning that waiting, hoping and anticipating should always be directed at a person and not an outcome. When we put our trust in Jesus for a particular outcome like a job, a relationship, a new opportunity or freedom from an old mistake, we are in danger of making that trust contingent on us getting those things. I'm finally learning to trust Jesus period, not just trust Him to give me what I want. Starting this year, if I'm going to anticipate and long for something so much that it consumes my thoughts and dictates my decisions, I want it to be Jesus. Not a dream job in Virginia and not a husband.
I have to admit, this Christmas more than ever, I'm really thankful that Luke 1 is in the Bible and that I have Elizabeth to show me how to wait faithfully. I'm also really thankful that I have my brother around to remind me that angels are real.
P.S. For anyone interested in a new perspective on how angels (and demons) operate in our world, or for anyone who doubts for a single moment that there is a battle going on around us. I want to recommend a book by Frank Peretti called This Present Darkness. I admit, it's not very Christmas-y, but it will forever change how you view prayer, the other day-to-day tasks you perform every day and especially how you feel the next time your car won't start.
