Angels with bagpipes

Nine years ago, while shopping for an advent wreath in North London, we received a telephone call asking if there was any reason why we could not take a ministry appointment in North Scotland (for perspective remember that, at the time, we had three sins in education, one had recently started a job, they were part of a large, young church in the suburbs of the most exciting city in the world). Almost without hesitation our reply was 'yes, of course'. It was a response that changed all of our lives - I am sure for the better. Within a few minutes I sat with coffee in my hand in the restaurant (it was a Garden Centre after all - not much about plants but lots of books, furniture, and Yankee candles) and let the news sink in to my heart and mind as I discussed it with Catherine. We resolved the next day to do what we always did  on a Wednesday morning - we would walk across Hampstead Heath from Kenwood to Parliament Hill Fields and pray and talk the issue through.

The next day duly comes and we did exactly that. This was a walk we took almost every week for a five year period of our lives, we frequently saw the same people and the same sounds. But this week was different. This week someone else turned up: an angel playing bagpipes! Yes, in the middle of our walk we started to hear the sound of the pipes and as we reached the brow as you approach the bandstand on the heath there, ahead of us, was an individual in highland dress playing the pipes. 

We had never witnessed this before, and we never saw or heard him again, but this day looking for surety about a move to Scotland an angel reassured us that we would be fine - simply by his presence.

My Advent Wonder today is about angels - we get to meet them when we are unaware, they herald the goodnews (of the Gospel not just of appointment changes), they reassure.

I wonder if I have missed an angel at some point when God has sent one? I wonder if Zechariah, Joseph, Mary and the shepherds could possibly have missed this wonderful visitation?

I wonder if you may have missed God's reassurance as well....

(It's also #givingtuesday - be an angel and be generous to those around you today- an early gift, a compliment, the giving of time, go on!)