Article December 23, 2019 Issue

Love’s comforting angels

Joyce Heard Hawes

A few years ago I was faced with my first Christmas alone in many years, as my beloved husband had passed on several months earlier. If ever I needed to feel comforted, it was then.

How much each one of us—indeed, our world—needs to feel the calm, comforting presence of God’s love! How can we all know more of God’s love, which brings peace, joy, and a wonderful sense of His power right here with us?

Throughout the Bible there are accounts of angels comforting, delivering, and guiding those who were faithful to the one God. An angel appeared to Moses in the midst of a burning bush, and when Moses doubted his ability to lead the children of Israel out of bondage, God’s angel message “Certainly I will be with thee” reassured him (see Exodus 3:1–12). When Elijah was overcome with discouragement and “requested for himself that he might die,” as the Bible tells us (see I Kings 19:4–8), an angel touched him and strengthened him. Christ Jesus spoke of God’s willingness and ability to send him “legions of angels” (see Matthew 26:53). And Mary was tenderly told by the angel Gabriel that she would bear Jesus, who would be called the Son of God (see Luke 1:26–38). Is it possible for us to be visited by angels, too? If so, how do we recognize them?