“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13.2 The English word angel derives from the Latin angelus, which means “messenger” or “envoy.”
I’ve heard it said that kind, generous people are “angels.” If an angel carries out God’s will to make the world a better place, then we truly have angels all around us.
By calling someone an “angel” we recognize the actions of extraordinary people, if not their very beings, as holy. They come to us in the form of family and friends, co-workers, and even strangers on the street who speak a word to us that we need to hear.
A few years ago, I was travelling back from a funeral in a very remote village with five parishioners. The roads in the area are relatively narrow and they twist and turn with high hedges on either side. It was late in the evening and dark. Just after rounding a sharp 90-degree bend, a tire blew on our car.
It was a dangerous location, and the road was too narrow to be changing a tire without some sort of ‘protection’. We all tried our mobiles but there was no signal. We tried to work out where the nearest house was but could see nothing.
At that moment a Toyota Landcruiser stopped, and the driver asked what the problem was. The driver left his vehicle beyond the bend with hazard lights flashing walked over to our car, changed the tire, shook our hands and left.
We did get a chance to say thank you. We encountered an angel! Angels drive Land Cruisers! Given the brokenness of the world in which we live, we could certainly use many, many more. Be an angel.
