“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus . . . ” (Luke 1:30)

 

With those words from the angel Gabriel, the lives of a peasant girl from Galilee and of all succeeding generations of mankind were changed forever.  While most of us are familiar with the message, what of the messenger?  The angel Gabriel, to my knowledge, is mentioned only twice in the Bible, in the books of Daniel in the Old Testament and Luke in the New Testament.

 

In Scripture, the Hebrew word for angel means “one going” or “one sent.”  In short, they are God’s messengers.  Angels usually appear at a momentous occasion bearing important information or providing critical assistance.

 

What are we to make, however, of the trials of everyday life?  Are there no angels to support or guide us?  In the Biblical sense, the answer would have to be “no.”  But are there, nonetheless, angelic spirits to guide us?

 

On a frigid winter’s day in 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35^th President of the United States.  The concluding words of his stirring Inaugural Address resonate with me to this day: “. . .here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

 

If angels perform the important missions for God, who is the messenger of the mundane, the emissary of the everyday?  In the eyes of those around you, you may glimpse the soul of an angel.