Contemplative Bible Reading

Judges 13:6 (New Living Translation)

The woman ran and told her husband, “A man of God appeared to me! He looked like on of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name.

We seem to think that angels are glorious. We show our children pictures of cute little angels on clouds. Those pictures are in stark contrast to how this woman, Samson’s mother, describes the angel God sent to her. The angel she saw was terrifying.

Seen any angels lately? I believe we all have, but we weren’t able to know that we were seeing angels. Seen any terrifying people lately? Maybe they were angels.

Those are guesses, maybe wild guesses. We have, however, words from the Bible describing angels that don’t quite fit how we often think angels should be.