I feel like I’m on a different planet from this blog for the last little while…there is too much to take in. Too much to record. Too many feelings I have kept close to ponder in my heart before I’m ready to really write. But really, I’ve realized that writing is what helps me decipher and sort out those unrecorded feelings so here I am.
As a start to unravel some of the velvety threads that have woven themselves tightly into this season, I want to start with angels.
You know when there’s something on your mind that just sticks there? Something that everything around you seems to keep bringing you back to? A phrase in a book, a magazine article, something that some stranger mentions to you at the grocery store, a lesson at church?
Well, this Christmas season that, for me, has been angels.
I’ve thought about them a lot.
I’m convinced that they’re all around us. It’s a beautiful thing to think about.
I keep thinking of those swarms of angels surrounding Mary and Joseph in the nativity painting printed on a beautiful card sitting on my counter:
(It’s by Brian Kershisnik and it’s one of my very favorites.)
I love that all those angels are crowding in to help. Are Mary and Joseph aware of them? Can they feel their promptings? Can they feel their love? Are they aware enough to even notice? It doesn’t seem that Joseph is very aware at that moment (I LOVE his expression). Perhaps Mary is?
Do I notice the angels in my life? I’m convinced that they are there. Perhaps they’re my ancestors who have gone before? Isn’t that a beautiful thing to think about? This may seem far fetched to some, but to me it just makes perfect sense. I feel them around me more often these days for some reason. I think about the angels surrounding Samuel on that wall near the end of the Book of Mormon (yes, I’m still plugging along to get done by new years). I think about the angels surrounding all the missionary work in that book. One of my favorite lines in there of recent is in Helaman 11:23 where it talks about Nephi and Lehi having “many revelations daily.” (I talked about that back HERE.) How many revelations is God trying to send us that we are too busy to hear? Does He try to send them through angels sometimes? Whether it’s mothering things or service things or balance things…I believe they are coming at us all the time.
We just have to listen.
I absolutely know I'm watched over by grandparents and family that has passed on. You are absolutely right about that, not a doubt in my mind. And our family has had some miraculous (dare I use that word) events that just make me absolutely certain of it. ❤
You HAVE to go read the book The Message by Lance Richardson. It talks EXACTLY about what you wrote here. It’s a pretty slim book so it’s a quick read, and it helped my testimony and made me realize our angels really are those who have passed on and are our relatives (not always I’m sure, but way more often than we think!) Go check it out! Its stayed with me long after I’ve finished reading it.
I'll have to check that out! Thanks for the suggestion.
I do feel like my grandmother watches over me, especially when life gets a bit rough around the edges. And you've had a heck of a 2018. I wish you all peace and light in 2019.
Wonderful post!