Uncommon Angels.

Image © by Brian E. Faulkner

What is there about sudden tragedy that attracts people? For some, it's curiosity.  For others, it's their job, and still others are driven by an inner drive to help that's so strong they can't not give assistance.

Remember television footage of the Boston Marathon bombing? After a few long seconds to process what has happened, even before the runners stop running, first responders -- and even some onlookers -- are seen heading into the danger zone.  For most of us, the natural impulse in a situation like that is to get out of harm's way as quickly as possible, but others stride in the opposite direction.  

They are uncommon angels, people who willingly embrace the chaos and tend to the injured without seeming to consider their own safety. Blood flow is stanched, wounds are tended, a shirt off one man's back helps stabilize another man's broken leg.  Evil is beat back.

It's the sort of thing that happens every day around our world, albeit at a slower pace and out of sight of the TV cameras: unheralded acts of personal kindness, prayer shaped by hearts and wrought by hands.  Health is restored, minds are mended. Money is given, solace provided, tears wiped dry.  Christ walks among the helpless, touching here, healing there. He bends to serve the sick and whispers hope to the hopeless, sits patiently by the bedsides of the old and neglected (who are us or one day may be us), listening to the stories of people whose hearts otherwise might break under the crushing burden of their loneliness.  

It is He who carries the light.  All at once.  All day every day.  In the dark, hidden places where hurt lingers, love is given.  Freely, and without condition.

And Jesus lives. 

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