Reasons 17: Today I'm grateful for the birth of the Savior because it brought out the angels. An angel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would bare the Savior of the world. An angel appeared unto Joseph to reassure him that Mary's baby was from God. And angels appeared unto the shepherds as they watched their fields at night, beckoning them to come and see the baby Christ. I know that there are angels around us today. They are guarding us and protecting us more than we realize. To me, Christ's birth is just one more evidence that they do exist, and that they concerned with the happenings of this earth.
"When the time for this Savior’s advent was at hand, an angel was sent to announce to Mary that she was to be the mother of the Son of God. Then a host of angels was commissioned to sing on the night the baby Jesus was born. Shortly thereafter an angel would announce to Joseph that the newborn baby was in danger and that this little family must flee to Egypt for safety. When it was safe to return, an angel conveyed that information to the family and the three returned to the land of their heritage.
From the beginning down through the dispensations, God has
used angels as His emissaries in conveying love and concern for His children.
Time in this setting does not allow even a cursory examination of the
scriptures or our own latter-day history, which are so filled with accounts of
angels ministering to those on earth, but it is rich doctrine and rich history
indeed.
Usually such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are. But
seen or unseen they are always near. Sometimes their assignments are very grand
and have significance for the whole world. Sometimes the messages are more
private. Occasionally the angelic purpose is to warn. But most often it is to
comfort, to provide some form of merciful attention, guidance in difficult
times.
My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both
the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never
leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. On
occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out
from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress
can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and
assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us,
seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.
May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude
for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite
scriptures: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on
your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about
you, to bear you up.” In the process of praying for those angels to attend us,
may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong
arm, a declaration of faith and “the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”
Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God when someone, perhaps a Primary
child, is crying, “Darkness … afraid … river … alone.” To this end I pray in
the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."
-Elder Jeffery R. Holland ("The Ministry of Angels", October 2008 General Conference)
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