Elephants and Angels

Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.

-- Psalm 103:20

There's an old story about three blindfolded men who were asked to touch and identify an undisclosed object. And that object happened to be live African elephant ... but no one told them!

The first man touched the elephant's muscular trunk. The second man grasped

the elephant's boney tale. And the third man -- moving his hands across the beast's rugged hide -- marveled at its rough exterior. Needless to say, their impressions about the mysterious object were way off the mark. A 10,000-pound elephant was right in front of them. But they failed to see the big picture.

Many people these days also miss the big picture when it comes to spiritual matters. And that's even true for some long-time Christ-followers. So to correct this common vision problem, God has throughout history communicated his message through prophets, the Bible, the Holy Spirit and of course his Son, Jesus.

God also uses angels to spread the word. These are his special messengers who can appear to you and me, remain invisible or communicate to us through dreams. The Bible even advises us to be hospitable at all times because we might be entertaining angels without even knowing it. (That would be quite a get-together!)

But God's messages through angels are much more than the stuff of cocktail party conversation. His are words that change history. And it's in Matthew's gospel that we read about angels telling an obscure girl named Mary that she would soon give birth to the Savior of mankind. Angels also confirmed to Joseph (Mary's fiancé) that the Holy Spirit was the source of her pregnancy. Likewise, angels announced the Good News of Jesus' birth to shepherds, who had seen a brilliant guiding star as it hovered over a lowly manger in Bethlehem.

It's through these revelations and confirmations that God has been healing spiritual blindness -- and not just 2,000 years ago in a tiny village somewhere in the Middle East. Even as 2019 approaches, his big picture message continues to appear and unfold to the entire world. And like the proverbial elephant in the living room, it's a reality that's right before our eyes. But first we must be willing to see it.