A Christmas Message from the Angels

Q: It says in the Bible that God created humans just a little lower than the angels. Angels seem to have all kinds of advantages over us. They are immortal and already live in heaven. However, I recently saw a motion picture that depicted a contingent of angels who were jealous of our free will, resentful of God's love for us, and conspiring to destroy us. How do you think the angels really feel about us mortals?

A: Although such negative entities as the fallen angels do exist and work to confuse and deceive us, let's draw upon the message of the Christmas angels as the truest expression of those heavenly beings who remain steadfast in the service of God and goodness: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will!"

Each Christmas season, that joyous proclamation is repeated in places of worship around the world. For a time, many men and women feel "the peace that passes all understanding." Then they permit the tensions and stresses of life to press in upon them once again, and the peaceful sensations--and all too often the expressions of good will toward fellow human beings--are absorbed in the day-to-day challenges of existence.

The peace that the Christmas angels declared to that small band of shepherds cannot be experienced until it has taken root in the soul. Once it exists there, it can be preserved in the midst of the bitterest disillusionments, the greatest frustrations, and the severest physical and mental anguish.

The peace that the angels declared on that cold night 2,000 years ago is meant to be the natural, happy state of humankind. Strife, bigotry, and war are corruptions, the terrible disgraces of our sins of intolerance. In order to achieve the kind of peace wished upon us by the Christmas angels, we must work to abolish greed, ambition, envy, anger, and pride.

In all the world religions, angels seem most concerned with calling on us to examine our souls, to improve our treatment of our fellow human beings, to resist passing judgment on others, and to put aside intolerance and prejudice in favor of becoming more loving and forgiving.

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