Thursday, December 18, 2008

Gabriel...God's Messenger

Heavenly sunlight streamed through my window, cascading across the mountains of messages still waiting to be assigned ….I was having a hard time getting it together this morning when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Arturo standing behind me; long-faced and solemn…something totally out of character for this delightful cherub.

“He wants to see you….RIGHT NOW!” he exclaimed … “In the Throne Room, alone.” I smiled and hurried him on his way. I adjusted my robe, fluffed my wings, straightened my halo and started the hike through the halls of Heaven to stand before God Almighty. You see, my name is Gabriel and I am God’s Holy Messenger. For as long as time immortal, I have been communicating with God’s creation to notify them of His Love and His care for them. But, this must be something REALLY important since I was summoned to the Throne Room. The last time I was there, he sent me to deliver a message of answered prayer to Zechariah, husband of Elizabeth, the Barren One. God had heard their prayers and acknowledged their faithfulness …they were having a son that would prepare the way for the Messiah of God’s chosen people.

Could this be THE MESSAGE I wondered as I pushed open the massive doors to God’s inner sanctum? I bowed lowly and was summoned to come closer…then, in what was probably a whisper that reverberated throughout that great hall like a thousand symphonies, God said, “Gabriel, my most valued one, IT IS TIME! Go to the town of Nazareth in Galilee and there you will find my hand maiden, Mary. Tell her …SHE IS THE CHOSEN ONE. SHE WILL BEAR A SON AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED JESUS….for He shall save my people from their sins. And, Gabriel, easy on the bright light of you aura…we don’t want to frighten her, now do we?”

“Yes, O Holy One….I will be gentle that she may receive this message from you.” And, in a twinkling of an eye, I was gone to deliver the most important message to all of mankind.

Now, what you’ve just read is probably the results of an overactive imagination or a dramatization, if you will; however, the message is true. God gave Gabriel the task of telling Mary that Jesus was to be born of a virgin …that she was to be the earthly vessel to bring forth God’s Son. His part in the cast of Christmas is forever fixed as a messenger of Good News…and that’s what God imparts to each of us each Christmas.

We are to be the messengers of Good News. We are to proclaim, unashamedly, that God came to earth as a little child to save all people from their sins. We are to tell everyone that God loved us so much that He did not even spare His own Son; rather He sent him to a young maiden and her bethrothed so that His life’s blood would be shed for the remission of our sins.

That is the real message of Christmas….that God made a way for us to be made RIGHT with Him….so that one day, like His beloved and trusted messenger, Gabriel….we could stand before Him in the very Throne Room of Heaven and there see our Savior, seated at His right hand.

Oh…… my friends,
What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see.
When I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace.
Then He’ll take me by the hand and led me into His promised land;
WHAT A DAY …GLORIOUS DAY…THAT WILL BE!

And that is our message for Christmas…
So Go.... and be a Gabriel!!!!!

Telling others about My Savior,
WPQ

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