Usually when people encounter an angel in the Bible, they are told, “Don’t be afraid,” because angels are fearsome beings, and often the instruments of God’s judgment. So tonight as we sang “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” about the angels announcing Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, I was struck by the words:
Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world
“With peaceful wings unfurled.” The wings that so often bring just punishment on a fallen humanity are unfurled in peace to announce the arrival of a Savior for a weary world.
May you experience God’s peace this Christmas.
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
