Entertaining Angels

Imagine for a moment that God sends angels in the form of humans.

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." - Hebrews 13:1-5

You think we might be able to spot angels, don't you?  It should be easy, since they would be, well, angelic. But what does an angel look like, anyway?

One of my favorite movies is the 1955 "We're No Angels" with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray as escaped convicts looking to rob a family at Christmas and make their way off the island to freedom.  They certainly weren't angelic.  Their specialties were safe cracking, cooking the books and murder.  Is that the stuff angels are made of?

But God works in mysterious ways, and in the time these "angels" spend with the family, they wind up teaming up to help the family out of a jam, doing away with some sinister characters in the process.

In the eyes of the family, they are angels.

So, I wonder if that is what this lesson is all about.  The folks we encounter and judge may be agents of God's love and grace, in a way we cannot imagine.

And we too may be enlisted in God's army of angels to help others, whether we live angelic lives or not. 

The path to God is the path of Love.  We don't have to do anything special to be loved, and He will do everything to bring us back when we stray.  Even send angels who don't look like angels at all.

More to come...