In His Name Devotionals
BE SOMEONE'S ANGEL
In His Name Devotionals
BE SOMEONE'S ANGEL
There was a scene in Forrest Gump where a mentally and physically handicapped Forrest recalls his first day at school, suffering cruel rejection from classmates. Then a little girl says, “You can sit here if you want.”
“I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life,” Forrest recalled. “She was like an angel.” Scripture teaches that Christ’s disciples who make room on the bus for someone, bear with someone’s failures, overlook someone’s peculiarities, and intervene lovingly to rescue someone from sin are angels—God’s ministering servants.
Who are these angels? They are people who, from the security of their own relationship with God through Christ, stand in the light of God’s love, reflecting it to others. They have rejected the dark night of hatred, racial prejudice, insensitivity, and unrighteous egotism for the sake of imitating Jesus; thus declaring their allegiance, letting others know they are on the Lord’s side.
In the words of an apostle, “If you know that [Christ] is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of Him.” This biblical statement is not about how the lost get saved, but about how the saved learn to live their new status. And what is the “doing right” of John’s context? It’s learning to obey the commandment to love one another as sisters and brothers in Christ.
The late Mother Teresa put it this way: “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God Who is sending a love letter to the world.” God writes His message of love through your acts of kindness, service, and generosity.
Salt, light, leaven, pencil—choose your own metaphor. Just keep it simple rather than mystical; practical rather than intricate. Through something incredibly simple and obediently right, you can become God’s ministering servant. By forgiveness, encouragement, and acceptance—be someone’s angel.
