Just Like in Heaven
There is in our culture a fascination with angels, and I believe a simplification of heaven. You can find all sorts of quotes about heaven. Michelangelo said, “My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.” Jimi Hendrix claims, “You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.” Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.” To the general world it seems as if heaven is a mythical place where everything you ever wanted is provided, or it is the place that only goody-two-shoes type people go and therefore it must be boring. I believe heaven is real and is the place where God, in all the magnificence of His glory, dwells.
I was thinking about heaven, and angels this morning which is not my normal thought process. I was reading the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 and was struck by verse 10. “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (NLT) Generally when I read this verse my attention gravitates towards God’s will, and what He would want done here on earth. I would lean toward asking God if there was something specific He was asking me to do. My brain did the cursory wondering of that thought, but my imagination grabbed ahold of the idea that God’s will should be done here on earth just like God’s will is done in heaven. That led my mind to think about angels, and wonder: what do angels do? How do they go about doing whatever they do? Are angels fun? Do angels have fun? Are angels happy? Do angels always wear the same thing? Do angels even have to wear clothes? (notice where my imagination tends to lean?) I did a brief search and I learned that the word angel means “messenger of God.” Angels obviously are sent, and deliver messages from God. An angel delivered the message to Mary that she was chosen to give birth to Jesus, the One who would save, and the shepherds received a message from an angel when Mary gave birth to Jesus. At times, angels are sent to help a human in a time of need or emergency, like when an angel provided food and rest for Elijah when he ran from Jezebel into the wilderness. Hebrews 1:14 says, “Therefore, angels are only servants — spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.” (NLT) In heaven, angels worship and declare God’s glory 24/7. Someday, the angels will separate the wicked from the righteous at Jesus’ command.
Then I began to unpack what it just might mean for God’s will to be done, just as the angels do. The angels are completely aware of God’s glory and how awesome He is. They cannot help but recognize that He is sovereign and that He is far above any one of them. There are angels who surround God’s throne and are always declaring “Holy, Holy, Holy.” When I sense the Holy Spirit asking me to do something, am I aware of whose presence I am in? I don’t think I do. I know that if God is asking me to do something that is uncomfortable, or risky, I have a tendency to whine, or seek to find a way to avoid doing what He is asking of me. If the Chief of Police in my town came to my door and told me I needed to help my neighbor, I’m not sure I would have the courage to turn him down, especially if he had a couple of well armed patrol men with him. If the Governor of my state called me up, told me he specifically needed my help and then told me to go door to door in my neighborhood and collect food for the hungry, I would suck it up and start knocking. If the President of the United States contacted me, and gave me the instructions that for the betterment of my community, and because of the gifts and abilities I had, he needed me to help out at the soup kitchen because they needed people who were chatty, friendly, and encouraging, I would feel compelled to volunteer. And when God asks me those things, I question his wisdom with “why me? Surely someone else is better, or has more time, or would connect better.” I am not aware of the majesty and power and awesomeness of who I am communicating with.
My imagination led me to decide that angels follow through with what God asks of them because they are so aware of who God is. I would describe the angels as immediately and willingly obedient. My imagination can’t imagine anyone so enthralled with another not jumping at the chance to fulfill that person’s desires. Do you remember first being in love? Can you recall your loved one asking you to do something that just didn’t turn your crank, but in the midst of all that euphoria, you couldn’t help but agree? My husband is a runner. I am not in any way, shape or form, a runner. In fact I am not even a sports girl! I like to hike and casually ride my bike, that’s about it. I exercise, but that has only come about as I’ve gotten older and just want to feel as if I can move and not feel 90 when I’m 55. When my man and I first started dating, I tried running. He was so proud of me, he told me I had great form! I didn’t keep it up, because I just don’t like it. I can’t ever seem to get into that rhythm that runners talk about. I just end up huffing and puffing and feeling horrible. But oh, at the beginning of our love, I wanted to run, because I was enthralled with this young man.
I believe the angels follow through. My imagination sees angels who start and complete a task. They don’t just have good intentions, they so want to honor God, they keep at what is being asked of them until God tells them it’s finished. Follow through is often hard for me. I get caught up in the excitement of a project begun, and then somewhere in the middle, where it becomes mundane, I trail off in my consistency and passion. The angels worship God every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, for weeks and months and years and decades and millenniums. They just don’t quit. They don’t get bogged down in “well, I did some of it yesterday,” or “can we mix it up a little?” or “really? We’re still doing this?” I do that with God. Perhaps he’s asked me to encourage someone and I send off a card. Yeah me! And then, God asks me give them a call and just chat. So I get around to it in a day or two, and think, yeah me! And then God suggests that I prepare a meal that this person can put into her freezer and I start to say things like, “I don’t have the time,” or “I don’t have the ingredients to spare,” or “my cooking isn’t that great.” If I am going to do God’s will here on earth, like it’s done in heaven, I don’t have the option of flaking out or quitting.
The angels are pretty amazing. They do some seriously awesome stuff! And it’s not about them. They are amazing and they do awesome stuff because God is MORE than amazing and God is MORE than awesome, and God is Holy, so very very Holy. The angels are so overcome with who God is, they can’t escape doing what God wills.
I saw the Lord’s Prayer in a fresh light this morning. The Lord’s Prayer wasn’t about how I figure out how to talk to God though it is very helpful in that regard. This morning, the Lord’s Prayer was an invitation to grasp the wonder of who God is, to so dwell within His majesty, that my heart’s cry becomes to do whatever he asks of me with delight and honor and reverence and gratitude that I was chosen to be used.
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty — the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” Revelation 4: 8b
