Guardian angel?
Sunday, 16 February, 2003
Stumbled across this passage this morning when I was reading my Bible (this occurs just after the angel releases Peter from prison in Acts 12):
[Peter] went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” (Acts 12: 12-15; emphasis mine)
In the course of my life as a Christian, I learned to think that the “personal guardian angel” thing was fiction, another popular misconception that I had somehow absorbed by osmosis. I know now we don't become angels when we die and that angels don't have halos. Angels are God's messengers; that's what the word means in Greek. Sometimes they can be quite terrifying (seek Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6). They certainly don't look anything like those tacky angel lapel pins you can buy from certain Christian bookshops.
But Peter apparently had an angel. And others, too, also had angels. I looked up the cross-reference of Acts 12:15 and it pointed me to Matthew 18:10:
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."
Jesus says the little children have angels. So does this mean that I have an angel too?
The other cross-reference was to Hebrews 1:14:
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
It's weird to think that there is some spiritual being out there serving and assisting me. But apparently (someone contradict me!) there is.
Blinks:
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How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
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Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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Its interesting how cautious we are (myself as well) in believing that we have a personal/guardian angel…