Miscellaneous: Fear Not! - Stephen

The Bible says the angels “look into” the ways God interacts with us (1 Peter 1:12).

So, maybe part of that looks something like this…

 

“Who ordered wings for this thing? And devil’s food cake? Come on!”

 

It’s the day of the annual Angelic Hosts Banquet. They would have had it at night I suppose as people have banquets but in the heavenly realm there is no night—so day it is. 

 

“Seems a bit cannibalistic if you ask me,” Michael continued. 

 

But since no one asked him, no one was listening to him either. 

That is, except me. My name is Martin McFly. Marty for short. And I have the privilege of being the angelic counselor of sorts. 

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking, why do angels need a counselor?

We are so powerful, so beautiful, so angelic. 

You would think that, wouldn’t you?

 

But truth is, we need a counselor more often than you might think. 

And it is, for some reason, always tied to making visits down there—to Earth that is.  

Something happens down there that doesn’t up here beyond the Gates of Splendor. 

 

Before you get lost in my account (and without breaking patient confidentiality), let me share a few examples. Then I think you will understand the need for my position. 

 

In what you would call the “Old Testament Days” or “OTD’s” as we refer to them up here, everything was good. We got a front-row seat to God creating the world with His spoken word. We had never seen anything like it! Yet, having known God my entire existence, I wasn’t too amazed either knowing first-hand how powerful He really is. 

 

From there we were called upon occasionally to do some less-than-spectator things. The night the Death Angel was sent to Egypt (cf. Exodus 12), the day one of us was called upon to attack the enemy’s army (cf. 2 Kings 19:35), and various events such as these came up here and there. But this is not where my job came to play. 

 

There is no need to question the God we saw create this world. If God called us to do these things, we knew our job was holy and right. And a God who is right is a God we can trust. So, we did—and that hasn’t stopped. 

 

But then there was that 400 years of silence. Now for us it was only a “hop-skip-and-a-jump” of time, so we really didn’t think much of it. That is until God called down Gabriel to visit this young girl named Mary of Nazareth. 

 

As always, Gabriel obeyed. When asked how it went his simple reply was, “She was afraid at first, but the message was shared.” No harm, no foul. And things went back to normal…or so we thought.

 

What seemed to be at the same time, Gabriel was called again to share a message but this time to a man in Nazareth named Joseph. And upon Gabriel’s return, fear was once again the initial response. I began to see this was getting to Gabriel a bit. 

 

Why was everyone on Earth so afraid of angels? 

We are created to be the beautiful servants of God Himself. 

And still our response was always the same with every visit.

 

To the father of John—“Fear not.” (cf. Luke 1:13)

To Mary—“Fear not.” (cf. Luke 1:30)

To Joseph—“Fear not.” (cf. Matthew 1:20)

To the shepherds in Bethlehem—you guessed it, “Fear not.” (cf. Luke 2:10)

And on and on and on it went. 

With every visit to Earth fear was the response to our presence. 

 

You can see how this would cause quite a bit of a…what’s the word…complex?

And that’s where I come in.

To encourage my fellow wingmen and women that we were not created to instill fear, but to simply declare the message and plan God has created for us to fulfill. 

 

In my discussions with Gabriel and the others, here’s where the confusion mainly lies—why is it that the people of Earth fear us as messengers of God when many of them believe in the existence of God? Shouldn’t those who believe in God’s existence also believe that He speaks? 

 

Honestly, I get it. You probably don’t expect to be woken up from what you call “sleep” by one of us. My face at the foot of your bed is probably not a normal occurrence happening down there. 

 

But the question I have instead is this—if God is wanting to speak to you through us or His Word, why fear? If anything, a God like ours is as good a reason as any to simply “fear not.” Just listen. He even sent Jesus to speak to you on His behalf (cf. Heb. 1:2)! I don’t understand why…but He did.

 

Now, that’s a question I’ll continue to investigate. 

 

My food is getting cold, so I better get back to the banquet.

Even if the food is a bit…strange.  

But who likes angel food cake better than devil’s anyway? 

Not me. 

And I’m also the caterer. 