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When I was 18, I visited Atlanta for a few days. Due to a strange series of events that are too complicated and unnecessary to recount here, I was forced to walk from the Georgia Dome to the Westin Downton. Although the walk was just a little over a mile, I lost my bearings and was wondering the city aimlessly.
Just as I was starting to panic, a stranger came out of nowhere, walked right up to me, and asked me if I was lost. He helped me find my way back to the Westin, jumped back in his car, and disappeared.
I was so grateful to this stranger because without him, I’m not sure how long I would have wandered downtown Atlanta. He saved me a lot of time and stress. After reflecting on my interaction with him, I became convinced that he was an angel sent from God. As proof, I cited the fact that he seemed to appear out of nowhere, knew to approach me and ask if I needed help, and left just as quickly as he came. There was no other explanation than the simple truth of which I was convinced – he was a physical manifestation of a supernatural being.
That was my assessment at the time. Since then, I’ve become much more critical of stories of people’s interactions with angels and demons – maybe to a fault. It now bothers me that people so quickly jump to a supernatural explanation of an event that doesn’t have an immediate natural explanation.
The same is true of my experience in Atlanta. I thought to myself, “There’s no way a normal (read: evil) human being could be so intuitive and kind as to offer me help when I most needed it.” It was just not possible, so I needed a supernatural explanation.
Here’s my problem with this line of thinking, especially in the case of my experience in Atlanta – What little faith I have in the goodness of humanity! Put more theologically, what little faith I have in inherent goodness God has placed in all of humanity! Maybe even taking in one step further – What little faith I have in the redemptive work of Christ to usher in the dawn of the kingdom of God on earth!
So my seemingly noble and pure desire to see the supernatural in what was really an every day event has caused me to actually overlook the reality of the kingdom of God on earth. I refuse to see God’s redemptive work in humanity, so I just chalk it up to “Gabriel with skin on.”
Kind of sad if you think about it.
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