The Choir of Angels

Dear Readers,

Christians around the world celebrate something very special today, faith in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth following His gruesome death on a Roman cross.

There are too many churches, too many denominations, too many forms of what we call church to list them here.  Today, however, I drove from Princeton to Bound Brook to attend my church 35 miles away,and along the way, I saw church parking lots brimming over with cars at Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Ukrainian Orthodox and even my own Presbyterian church.  It filled me with a sense of community, knowing we all share this faith, even people whom I may never meet, and especially family & friends whom I could not see this year.

Today is Easter, and as I sat thinking about the Gospel stories, I let myself imagine what it must have been like for all the seraphim, cherubin, angels and archangels.  That must have been the most fantastic of heavenly parties!  Imagination is a gift from the Creator so I use it to invision these things:  the lucky angels who came to role away the stone, the one who got to fold the clothes and lay them upon the place where Jesus had just stood, alive.  The choirs of angels singing! 

I heard Handel’s “Alleluia” twice this weekend.  I imagine the great chorus of humanity standing in heaven, all in cute little choir robes of the colors of the world, holding their songbooks, singing this song of praise with the perfection of crystal voices, the 1st soprano notes bouncing off the clouds (granted this is one those old-fashioned heaven scenes).  Then. as the choir sings the final notes and lower their songbooks, they look up to God and the angels as if to say, “What do you think?”  And then the angels stand together, feathers ruffling amongst each other, no songbooks, no robes, just brilliance radiating from inside them, as Gabriel or the Music Director says,  “That was very nice.  Would you like to hear what we sang on the day Jesus conquered death?”

Angels_wings

With that, I give you a poem, written by a friend, Anon.  Thank you HSS for sharing this with me.  I am hoping you will be happy to share it with the world.  To cyerspace: Enjoy and peace of Christ be with you!

Happy Resurrection Day
 
Once upon a Christ-born night,
 the Angels sang with all their might!
Filled with awe and reverant fear,
 raised their trumpets, drawing ever so near.
Waiting to see the Master’s Best,
 knowing that He came to redeem mankind and nothing less.
They came to Shepherd’s watching their flock by night,
 so humble and meek, not wanting to fight.
Unlike the Pharisees, pompous and wity,
 missed This Redemptive Saviour, O what a pity!
They pondered and planned an insurrection,
 not knowing This Saviour’s resurrection.
Shiloh had come right to their door.
 There was no need to look further any more.
Complete Truth was wrapped in swaddling clothes,
 When He came as a substitute for man’s sinful woes.
 
Be blessed.
HSS