Daily Post: Savor
Now me, I prefer a good tenderloin steak, medium rare, with a baked potato as opposed to say … a tofu salad. But hey, that’s just me. I recently sold my Vision Komodo grill to a nice young couple with two children. I sold it because I’m too old to mess with how long it took to get the charcoal just right in order to cook that medium rare steak in the first place. The subtle smell of wood smoke is an awesome thing, but if I need more of that smell in my new Weber, I’ll just soak a few chips, wrap it in foil just enough to leek out onto the steaks and I’m still good. You might say I savor the experience as much as the smell, taste, sight and sound of grilling.
These five senses are God-given characteristics of how the Creator expects us to experience this life. Literally everything we do in some way involves the engagement of our senses. The things that we savor are those that penetrate deepest in our minds, in most cases lasting a lifetime. One of my favorite savored memories of my mom is her banana pudding. Legend has it that my dad (as a young man) came home from work one day to find a mixing bowl full of banana pudding in the refrigerator. Mom apparently wasn’t around, so he took the rather large bowl and sat down, proceeded to eat the whole thing. My mother didn’t savor that experience, but he did.
So you see, we savor different things, because we are so unique.
Angels are created beings of a higher order and nature than humans. Angels were created primarily to worship God, bring God glory, and perform God’s will. In this unique design, angels were given powers and capabilities that humans do not have. Yet there is within this paradigm the understanding from the Bible that in some ways, the angels look at our relationship with God and are awed by it. When the Apostle Peter wrote about the living hope and sure salvation we have in Jesus, he talked about the prophets who longed to know more, and the angels who saw from heaven, and wished they could understand better. [1 Peter 1:10-12]
How do I know the angels savor this salvation story? Simple. Jesus said so.
At one point in His ministry, Jesus told three parables back-to-back-to-back. Just so that it wouldn’t be lost on his listeners, Jesus pointed out the object of the parable explicitly at the end of each tale. He told about a lost sheep and said, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” [Luke 15]
Then Jesus told the story about the lost coin, and at the end he said, “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”[Luke 15]
Finally, Jesus told the story of a prodigal son, the most complete and detailed version of the “lost” stories. It was one that probably everyone in the crowd that day related to, because they had known someone who’s son had acted this way… or they were the son that acted this way. At the end of this story, the son that never did anything wrong was so upset he asked the dad “what gives?” Jesus said to that son, “Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found!”[Luke 15]
Angels and humans are not brothers. We do not become angels when we die. However, angels and humans are both created by God, and have a common purpose. We were both created to bring God glory. The angels do this just as they have for eons before humans were ever created. Yet in this long servitude, when in the fulness of time, the Son of God died so that humanity could be saved, angels were a willing part of this plan of salvation. The angels ministered to Jesus while here on earth, and minister today to us as we seek to do God’s will.
Jesus said in these “lost” stories that every time a sinner repents, every time that person that is far from God steps over the line of faith into Jesus, the angels savor the experience and throw a party in heaven (look again at the lost coin story). The angels savor and cling to it in such a way that it never gets old. The joy never stops. This aspect of their created experience, they did not know before the creation of humanity, and the plan of salvation for humanity. But now… even after all this time of watching humans bring glory to God by trusting in Jesus… they savor the experience as something they will never know personally, but had a part in all along.
Are you far from God today? Take that step… cross over the line of faith into Jesus… and let the angels savor that experience as well.
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As I was saying... 
Great “savoring” – enjoyed reading – thanks.
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