Angels

As Christmas approaches we will probably see pictures or statues of angels here and there. So let us talk about angels and their roles in our lives.

But here we use the word angel in a very restricted sense – not as spiritual invisible messenger, not a special illumination or a winged creature bearing a summons, not even a vision or supernatural being. By an angel we mean any person or event that has changed the whole course of our life, influenced our behaviour, and us turn right when we were about to turn left and in general made us better.

Take for instance, the story of a young man named Tobias who was sent by his father to the land of Media on a mission. His mother was worried about sending her son on a long journey alone. So she went out and found a guide whose name was Raphael. Raphael not only protected Tobias from danger but also helped him accomplish his mission and found him a wife. Raphael was an angel to Tobias.

God sends many angels in our paths, but we often do not know it. In fact we may even go through life never knowing they were agents or messengers of God to lead us on to virtue or to deter us from vice. But they symbolize that constant intervention of God in the history of humans, which stop us from destruction and lead us to success and happiness and virtue. So lets think back and find out the angels who came our way through out this year as the year is ending soon. And then let us give them proper acknowledgement in our lives.