The angels filled their brown stained coffee mugs one last time before moving into the conference room at the Heavenly Ministry of Information.
Everyone was seated and they were chattering away as Elenton the Minister of Information took his seat at the end of the table. He shuffled a few pieces of paper and then cleared his voice.
"Hear, hear let’s get underway. We’ve got a lot to accomplish--and in a short period of time. George would you lead us in prayer?"
The room quieted as George, the youngest angel in the ministry, began to speak with clear and sweet words that can only come from the mouth of an angel--"Almighty and ever-living God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with us as we begin the work to which you have graciously assigned us. Guide us as we endeavor to make your good news known to all creatures. Glory be to you!"
And with those words the five angels broke into a spontaneous and harmonious doxology--a song unheard by human ears--"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. Amen. Amen. Amen."
There was a period of unplanned silence as the significance of the moment began to sink in.
Then the Minister of Information was the first to speak.
"I’m sure you’re all aware of our assignment. It’s been the buzz throughout the heavenly corridors for the past three hours. I do wish the Almighty had given us more lead time on this one. Although, as Chief Michael pointed out when I met with him a few minutes ago, if you look back over the last 2,000 years he’s been dropping hints all along. Perhaps we should have seen this coming. Our job is to figure out how to get the word out to the planet--to break the news in a manner which will have a significant impact. Any preliminary thoughts?"
George, was the first to speak. "Well, the thing that comes to mind is that we could put together this giant convocation of all the world’s leaders. A Peace Summit where everyone could sit around and talk about peace and harmony for a week, smooze, eat pizza together, and then at the end--the whole event would climax with the introduction of the Prince of Peace.
"We could do a press conference and have photo opts..."
Kenton, another fairly young and new-to-the-ministry-angel piped in--"Yeah, and we could do a whole promotional program in conjunction. Mailings, donkey stickers that people could slap onto the rear of their beasts, celebrity endorsements, special appearances in the markets, give aways. I can see some special issue wine skin printed with something like ’the Prince of Peace has arrived! Have you met him yet?’"
"Hmmm," Gorit another more mature angel cleared his voice, "You might want to work on that one a bit. But it seems to me that we ought to do something to get the religious community behind us. Past experience has taught us that nothing flies if you don’t have the clergy and the Pharisees on our side. We could start with a series of scholarly journal articles outlining the theological basis for a Messianic presence. Then we could do a lecture series."
Kenton rolled his eyes. "No way. You can’t start with the religious-types. They’re late adopters. It would be another 2,000 years before they catch on--if ever! I say, go for the most receptive, go in with a big flash. Media, bill boards, radio..."
Gorit, who was almost annoyed that his ideas had been so quickly dismissed, snapped back, "Kenton, you’ve been spending way too much time in the future."
Another angel who hadn’t yet spoken, Harold, interrupted the bantering. Speaking with slow and pronounced words, he said, "It seems to me that we need to go with something tried and true--a natural spectacle of some sort--something along the lines of the pillar of fire or the cloud that guided the Israelites through the desert. And what about that burning bush which got Moses’ attention? Personally I’d be inclined to go with something in the skies."
"That’s one of the best ideas, yet" quipped George. "We should keep that on the list. But I think we need to take a step back--and ask how exactly is the Almighty planning to present himself. It seems to me that the announcement should be consistent with the Almighty’s approach. Elenton, do you know any more about how God plans to step into human form? Is he going to be a prophet, or a general, or a king, or what?"
"Well," grinned, the Minister of Information, "I was about to get around to that. I think this falls into your ’or what’ category. He’s going to start out as a baby."
"A baby!" everyone seemed to gasped in unison.
Kenton snapped, "God is going to become a baby. No one’s going to believe if we say that God has come as a baby. You might as well just go find a bunch of shepherds in the fields and sing the hallelujah chorus to the them."
Just then, there was a knock on the door and the personal assistant to the Minister of Information poked his head into the room. "Sir, I just got a call from the Almighty’s office and they wanted you to know that the operation has already begun. Also they said that the Angelic Choir just got back in from their last assignment, would be available for immediate deployment; and that you’d know what to do."
Elenton took one last gulp of coffee, stood up, and stepped over to the phone.
©1998 Brad Boydston. All rights reserved. Permission granted for non-commercial use. Permission granted for SermonCentral.com use.
