Luke 2:13-14
"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.'"
One angel was not enough. After the first angel delivered the message to the shepherds, the sky split open and a multitude appeared. The Greek word here is plēthos. A vast number. An army of angels filling the night sky with praise. Imagine the sound. Imagine the light. Imagine being a shepherd in a dark field and suddenly the entire heavens are singing.
This is the only recorded instance in Scripture of angels singing. They have announced. They have fought. They have delivered messages. But they only sang once. At the birth of Jesus. The entrance of the Son of God into human history was so significant that heaven could not contain itself. The angels burst through the ceiling of the sky and they sang. Not for kings. Not for emperors. For shepherds. For the nobodies in the field.
"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace." That is the song. Two lines. Glory up. Peace down. The vertical and the horizontal. When God gets His glory, earth gets peace. Not the absence of conflict. The presence of shalom. Wholeness. Reconciliation. The kind of peace that comes when the gap between God and humanity is bridged by a baby in a manger. The angels knew what was happening. They knew this birth would end the war between heaven and earth. So they sang.
I love that the angels sang about peace to people who probably did not feel very peaceful. Shepherds in a field at night, watching over animals, worried about predators and weather and whether they would have enough to eat. Their lives were not peaceful. Their circumstances were not easy. And into that reality, the angels sang about peace. Not because the shepherds had achieved it. Because God was bringing it.
That is how grace works. Peace is not something we manufacture. It is something we receive. It is announced to us the way it was announced to the shepherds. From outside ourselves. From heaven breaking into our ordinary, difficult, messy lives and saying, "It is done. Peace is here. Not because you earned it. Because He was born."
"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests."
Today I am joining the song. Not because my life is peaceful. Because my God is glorious. And where His glory goes, peace follows. I do not have to create peace. I just have to receive it. The angels sang it over a field in the dark and it is still true. Glory to God. Peace on earth. It started in a manger and it has not stopped echoing. I am listening. I am singing. I am receiving the peace that heaven declared over a field two thousand years ago.
With the thirteenth candle bright and the echo of heaven's chorus still ringing through the centuries, I am adding my voice to the song. Claire