Preparing for angels: theology and a game

In Scripture, the first thing angels often say is, "Don't be afraid." That makes sense since they are described in bizarre and terrifying ways: with multiple eyes and wings, or as flame, or as strangers who deliver messages that totally disrupt lives and challenge one's understanding of God.

Sometimes, yes, they show up with good and glorious news: Jacob saw angels as messengers moving on a ladder stretched between heaven and earth, and the psalmist says that angels will carry us in their arms, and  angels announced the Messiah's birth to startled shepherds, and angels ministered to Jesus in the wilderness and in Gethsemane -- and I desperately want angels to surround and protect my children and grandchildren for ever and ever.

All this is to admit that although I've written Season of Angels about the Archangel Raphael's journey with young Tobias, my actual understanding of angels remains amorphous and inexpressible.

At a level beyond words, I understand that Hamlet was right: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" -- and angels are among those "things." Serving eight years as a pediatric hospice chaplain and four more at the prison, however, keeps me from expecting Guardian Angels to prevent horrors from happening. But even (perhaps especially) with dying children, there is often a sense of spiritual depth and courage way beyond their years, as if, even on that final journey, they are surrounded by divine companionship which one might call angels.

Just months before his death, a 13 year-old rewrote the opening of the 23rd psalm to read: "The Lord is my shepherd; he makes me feel safe." And an inmate wrote a prayer that echoes psalm 91: "Keep your hand on my shoulder and always guide me. Walk with me during this winding journey. Please carry me as only you can through these dark waters." Separated by years and bars and death itself, these two people nevertheless articulated a felt sense of companionship with the Holy. Angels ministered to them, even in their own Gethsemanes.

So yes, I find myself willing to say that angels do accompany our children, although I also know such companionship doesn't mean guaranteed safety (I wish it did). Nevertheless, it is that companionship, that "being-with-ness," which can be so important for children to know. I stand by the closing lines of Season of Angels: "Whenever you are set a task to do, a Guardian Angel walks the road with you." And that would still have been true for Tobias if the demon had won or the silver been spent.

Having wrestled with my theology of angels, let's do something more fun. Let's turn to Jacob, another wrestler-with-angels, and get ready to play Pin the Angels on the Ladder that Jacob saw extending between heaven and earth.

Pin the Angels on the Ladder is played like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Make a ladder out of construction paper, about 18 inches high, and attach it to a wall. 

The children should then each make an angel. While they are working on their angels, you could tell them that descriptions of angels in Scripture vary from human-like, to winged, to frighteningly beautiful and strange creatures with multiple wings and eyes, to images of fire. Encourage them to create an angel that seems right to them. 

You might want to have on hand such staples as construction paper, glitter glue sticks, pipe cleaners, and tissue paper from which they can create their angels. While they are working, tell them about Jacob and his dream of the ladder stretched between heaven and earth, with angels going up and down between. 

Have each child write his or her name on the angel and add a piece of masking tape rolled into a sticky loop. When they are finished, blindfold the children one at a time and spin them around gently. Urge them to walk carefully to where they think the ladder is, hand outstretched with the tape in front so that it sticks to the first surface it touches. You should end up with angels all around the room--a good image of the surrounding protection of angels. If some do get their angels on the ladder itself, you could give them each a star to put on their angels, but remind all of the children that wherever their angel ended up is "good." 

At the end of the game, you could make a mobile of all the angels, hanging them by different lengths of thread from a coat hanger. (The children may want to decorate the back side of their angels before making the mobiles if they didn't do so originally.) Or you might choose to leave them scattered wherever the children "pinned" them. 

Have fun!

Request for next week: It's time to send ingredients for the new Goblin-to-Go story. If this is unfamiliar, check out the blog post "Jesus Told Stories," from May 6, 2013.