by Zachry Kincaid
O God, send us your angels, messengers from highest heaven. Guard what is holy with fiery sword (Genesis 3:24). Encourage us. Shout our names in uneasy moments of obedience (Genesis 22:1-19). We are outcasts. Give us words of eternal hope for our God is the God who really sees! (Genesis 16:7-16). Enter our homes. Visit us even though we live in time and lack belief (Genesis 18:1-15; Hebrews 13:2). Blind our eyes into seeing the truth again – wrong is wrong and His wrath is not pretend (Genesis 19:1-29). Climb down. Change our dreams. May we see afresh the goodness of our Father (Genesis 28:10-22). Bloody our noses. Imprint an eternal reminder that the Maker of bone and marrow wants communion, and if we accept His covenant, we will not be the same (Genesis 32:22-32). Pass over us, but strike down the wicked. Make this night different from all other nights (Exodus 12:1-30).
Go before us. Guard us and bring us into His good providence (Exodus 23:20-33; Psalm 91:11). Stand in our way. Give voice to your creation when our stubbornness bleeds out sin (Numbers 22:21-34). Break our pride and pretension. Call us to repentance with weeping (Judges 2:1-4). Open our eyes! Terrify us, so we smash our idols and have the guts to stand up (Judges 6:19-35). Give us guidance. Teach us. We want to know God, but gravity can weigh on us (Judges 13:1-25; Psalm 104:4). Strike us down. Don’t relent until our threshing floors become altars of great cost (2 Samuel 24:11-25).
After the victory, find us. Feed us with the mysteries of God. Strengthen us for new journeys (I Kings 19:1-9). Will you be on our hillsides in battle formation, ready for war? Open our eyes, we pray. May we see God’s army gathering on horses and chariots (2 Kings 6:17-23; Psalm 34:7, 68: 17-18). Draw near. Put to death our enemies. They surround us by the thousands (2 Kings 19:32-37; Isaiah 37:36-37). Fly in with live coal from God’s altar on the Day of Atonement (Isaiah 6:6; Leviticus 16:12). Be in the fire with us so we won’t burn, and close the mouths of lions so we will live (Daniel 3:28; 6:22). Speak to us the living word of God. The nations feed on turmoil and rebellion, but He is coming and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. We want to be ready, and desire holiness when we see the Lord Almighty (Zechariah 1-14).
And Gabriel, we thank you, especially. God called you to enter time with high orders, to touch down in Nazareth and find one person in particular. “Greetings,” you said to Mary, who looked troubled and afraid. “The Lord is with you. He has invited you to do a mighty work.” You were patient and kind despite her inhibition. “Though you are a woman, a creature made in God’s image, and also a virgin, you will give birth to the only Son of God. If people ask you about such things, tell them that nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:26-38).
To the angel who invaded Joseph’s sleep (Matthew 1:20-25), thank you. And to the heavenly hosts who dropped everything else in all God’s universe to light up our skies and send shepherds to adore this baby boy, born on a night different from all other nights, God from God, true light from true light (Luke 2:1-20),
We thank you. We read that you long to look into the mercies of God toward us – why he came, suffered, and died for the sins of a rebellious people (I Peter 1:10-12). Yet undeterred by such longing or the rebellion in Heaven (Luke 10:18) or the making of Hell itself (Colossians 1:16), you obeyed – from the day you stood watch over Eden to the free-fall into mankind’s fallenness that now envelopes Earth.
Now we hear the faint echo of Holy, holy, holy that we will one day sing in concert, for our Lord God Almighty reigns (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever (Matthew 6:13).