Angels Close to the Ground

This morning's devotional reading brought tears to my eyes.  The author, Bob Buxman begins his article in Rejoice! this way. "Willie Nelson sings "Angels Who Fly Close to the Ground." I've no idea what he imagined, but he could have written that line about immigrants - especially those from South of the U.S. border." (MennoMedia, Vol 56, no 3) and then he tells about many people approaching the infamous U.S. border. The first image that comes to my mind is from experiences a number of years ago when I was a trucker. That's where the tears come in. These corona days, some days I cannot but wish I was still doing what I once did. This morning's devotional topic, however, is much larger than my personal sentimentality. It's about hospitality, very thought provoking and completely contemporary, based on Hebrews 13:1-3. I once wrote a short article in the sleeper of my truck during those trucking years.  I must share it here, and then I'll follow with a bit of further thought on this scripture.

Aug 15, 2014

I wake up in a sweat. It is the middle of the night. I know I have been sleeping because a remnant of latest dream still lingers. My pillow feels like a sponge around my ears, my bed sheet wrapped around my naked legs. It is time to start the truck. I have done this before. It is how I survive these days – half a night au naturelle and then half a night with a/c running.

As I turn the key my heart settles in gratitude. I am thankful for batteries newly purchased about a month ago, and now serving with confidence (unlike the old ones that occasionally gave me a heart attack when there was only a ‘click click’). And I am so grateful for a recently learned poor man’s air conditioning repair. I charge it up with a can of Freon purchased at a local Walmart or Kmart! Oh, what a welcome discovery these last several weeks. No need to spend hundreds of dollars on A/C repairs that last only a short while anyway!

This morning, however, another thought intrudes itself on ‘the good litany.’ Seems like I remember another variation to this a/c topic! Last evening as I cruised down the highway I was accompanied by air escort! A helicopter was diving and darting behind, aft, and before me – obviously a vehicle of USCBP – probably snuffing out Mexican illegals down in the hot snake infested bushes somewhere. Not only that, but my mind reels on. Yesterday morning back in Laredo I was sitting at McDonalds, when suddenly there was the raised voice of a Security Officer, “Hello, Hello, Out!,” and a ragged looking young man gave up on his attempt to grab ice and a cold drink at the fountain machine.

Indeed, even now I further recognize my comparative comfort. I live in an insulated world. I haul temperature controlled produce. I haul it from cool warehouse to cool warehouse, with strict temperature requirements in my load assignments. My job is done within those parameters, and I do it well. I do it in comfort and even with a certain amount of dignity. What if I didn’t have this truck? What if it didn’t work right? (That has happened occasionally and I don’t care to think about that too much). What if I was one of those desperadoes out in the bushes? My heart resonates with what Martin Luther once said, “There but by the grace of God go I.”

Lord I wish I would at least have handed the guy my cold drink as he wildly beat his escape past my seat at McDonalds. Ooh, my mistake. And some of us have it so good!

The book of Hebrews is an amazing precis of the whole Bible.  If I was teaching an Introduction to Bible class right about now I would have students begin with several reads of the whole book. Where else can you get a brief overview of Old Testament laws and prophets and writings and then see perfect articulation of fulfillment in Jesus along with invitation to become a follower of him. Yes, yes! Even for days such as these! 😊 At beginning of last chapter of this marvelous book are these three verses. 

13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Hospitality!  My wife and I could not but feel the stretch of these few verses. Mr. Buxman has a good awareness of hospitality not just in its comfortable homey image. The costly understanding, the rigorous bigger picture is not lost on him. He writes of contemporary South Americans fleeing cruel regimes to supposed safety in the U.S.A. and I of course think of my forebears suffering the Revolution in Russia in the early 1900s.  As I observed helicopters pursuing unlawful asylum seekers in the hot snake-infested bushes of Texas it's not much of a stretch to think of population shifts happening in most countries of the world. And it's right here in my present retirement involvements in comfortable Calgary, Alberta. Each day I have opportunity to encounter immigrants from many places - most prominent in mind right now are South Sudanese and Ethiopian Christians escaping tribal warfare in Africa, and Muslims from Turkey, especially followers of Imam Fethulah Gulen. The minute I become acquainted with any of these folks it seems the table changes. I become the one receiving hospitality! They are the hospitable ones. They cherish my friendships complete with bright smiles and endless patience with my fellow-citizens who prefer to talk about the drain of immigrants and refugees on the taxpayers, etc.

Hospitality is such an essential concept mandated not only in the Bible, but Quran and all sacred texts, and it's one of those efforts yielding immediate reward. In so doing we are in the holy and sacred presence of angels - amazing this concept in three short verses!  I would go as far as to say, the greater the commitment to hospitality the greater the surprising holy presence of God's holy angels. 

I see no need for further theologizing about this. Just do it, and the rewards pile in. Sigh! This preacher in retirement is still lonely for those trucking years. Thank God for those angels still flying low - here, there, everywhere.