Recently, I have been thinking quite a bit about the varied vessels that God has used throughout history to guide and provide for the people.  A review of Bible stories has reminded me that God can and will use some interesting objects and people to get a message to the people:  clouds and fire to show guidance; rods and water to provide deliverance; stones and rocks to fight human and spiritual giants; lions and lambs to provide pillows of peace; and prostitutes, prophets, and a peasant girl to produce the pathway for our Savior.   I am amazed that God can and will use anything in an effort to help guide the people.

During my review of the Bible stories related to this Advent Season, I was captivated by God's use of a particular angel who delivered the message of "Good News" to the people.  The pericope in Luke 1: 26-38 seems to be one of approximately 3 times when God used this specific angel, Gabriel, to deliver a message.  "Why Gabriel" I asked?  "What made him so special?" Well, Gabriel (like the angel Michael) was no regular angel.  He was an arch angel which is a high ranking angel. He was like the co-chair of Heaven's Armed Forces Committee.  He was the crème of the crop.  He knew how to "handle the business" of God.  When God needed a specific message to reach the people and needed someone who was known for "getting it done", he called Gabriel (or Michael). 

How exciting it is to know that the message of salvation was so important that God used the voice of the arch angel Gabriel to deliver the life-changing message to Mary and the world!   God used the messenger Gabriel to tell of the incarnation, the advent, the birth of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.  The message of Jesus' birth was so important that no other angel was entrusted with it.  God chose his best man for the job! 

While the primary job of Gabriel in this story was to use his voice to annunciate the incarnation message, I would venture to say that there may be other more covert messages that we could hear if we studied the story and the approach of Gabriel more closely.  I'll share one of those messages in this blog, and other messages in blogs to come.

Along with the incarnation message, another point that I gathered from this story relates to intimacy.  When we think of intimacy, most times our minds go straight to the act of sex. Let's just be honest.  Intimacy, in the minds of many people and profiteers, equates to sex.  That is clearly the message that we are told from contemporary artists, right?  That is the message that we see on our favorite day time and evening soap operas, right? That is the message that we see and hear in many print advertisements and commercials, right? We are taught to equate intimacy with sex.  However, it we look at the message that emanates from the voice of the angel Gabriel, we may walk away with a different meaning.  Gabriel's message of intimacy is something far different from what we are told, and it even demonstrates that real intimacy is not sexual at all. 

Look at it.  Gabriel's job was to share his message and leave; however, we see in verses 28-38 that he did "more than his job".  Yes, we see that he shared the message of advent, the coming of Christ, but we also see that he stayed with Mary and ministered to her in her time of emotional and spiritual need.  When she was troubled, he spoke of the forthcoming life of Jesus in versus 30-33.  When she had questions, he provided her with detailed, divine answers.  When she needed reassurance, he listened with a non-judgmental ear and shared the medical miracle of her Cousin Elizabeth's pregnancy.   By ministering to her via listening and attending to her needs, he revealed the true meaning of intimacy.  He demonstrated that intimacy is the process of building and maintaining a healthy, caring, personal unique emotionally-binding relationship with another which cannot be easily duplicated.

In this text, Gabriel is teaching us a powerful lesson about what intimacy really is.  This lesson is even poignant for many of us who are called to convey messages from God.  Many of us are so "caught up" in getting what we want or in getting our point across that we fail to consider the needs of the person who is hearing the message.  While we may have a desire to "do good", sometimes we turn people away from good without even knowing it.  We say "our peace" (whether God-directed or not), turn on our heels, and walk away not doing anything that Gabriel did to nurture an intimate relationship.  We are so committed to delivering a message that we forget about how the message may be received.  And because of our technique for sharing, the joy, peace, grace and mercy of the message may be lost in translation.

Here is something that a professor shared with me many years ago:" People may not remember what you said.  People may not remember what you did.  But people will always remember how you made them feel."

Perhaps, we should step into the role of an angel and consider our tactic when using our voices to deliver a message.  We should think about how we can nurture intimacy by choosing our words carefully; by listening with our ears and not our mouths; by demonstrating our best effort to show Jesus when sharing the message; by doing our best to answer questions that may arise from the hearer's heart.  These are ways to show and build real intimacy.  If we would follow the example of Gabriel, even when sharing good news, we would embrace the lesson of intimacy that he demonstrated.

Loving Through Listening,

Kesslyn Brade Stennis