Hark!

An Angel with Low Self-Esteem Gets the Biggest Assignment of All

Angels are known for lots of things.

Some are strong. And some are scary. And some have wings. And some blow trumpets. And some are in disguise and look like you and me because God is using them to do something secret and cool which means you might have met an angel doing something secret and cool for you and not even known it!

And then there’s Harold.

Up in heaven it wasn’t entirely clear what Harold was good at. He couldn’t fly. He couldn’t play an instrument. He said he was really good at tether ball but the one time he tried to prove it he got wrapped up in the tether ball rope and had to be rescued by a heavenly host of angels. (A “heavenly host” is a LOT.)

Harold was almost on the verge of feeling crummy about himself (it’s not possible to feel crummy in heaven but he came pretty close) when God himself gave Harold an assignment. Now when God gives you any assignment it is a big deal. If you think God is telling you to say hi to a lonely kid or forgive your sister or not light your grandma’s cat’s hair on fire, you should probably listen.

And in Harold’s case, this was no ordinary “don’t set grandma’s cat on fire” assignment. This was the assignment of all assignments. The BIG ONE. The one they’d write stories about someday. Like this one, but not quite as silly.

“Harold,” God said. “My precious talented angel.”

“Who me?” Harold didn’t see himself as particularly precious or talented.

“Yes you,” God said. “I have something exciting for you to do.”

“It’s not a tether ball tournament, is it?” Harold worried.

“Better,” God said.

Harold listened. (Pro tip: When you think God is talking to you, the best thing you can do is STOP talking and START listening.)

“A baby is about to be born in a manger in the city of David and I need you to go down and tell the shepherds that this baby is the Savior of the world. Can you do that for me, Harold?”

Harold had lots of questions.

“What’s a shepherd?” Harold asked.

“A shepherd is someone who takes care of sheep.”

“What’s a sheep?”

“A sheep is an animal with white fluffy fur.”

“What’s fur?”

This conversation went on for quite a while. After all, Harold had never been anywhere or done anything.

He didn’t know what a city was or a baby was and he definitely didn’t know what a Savior was.

“A Savior is someone who saves people,” God explained.

“What do they need to be saved from?”

“From themselves, Harold.”

At last, when Harold seemed to fully understand the assignment, God added one more detail.

“And then once you’ve finished telling the shepherds all that, you’ll sing.”

SING?!

As I mentioned earlier, Harold did not have any obvious talents. What WAS obvious to him was that Harold could definitely, for sure, one hundred million percent, NOT SING.

(You know how there used to be dinosaurs but then they all died and no one really knows why? Yeah, that was because Harold sung.)

“I can’t sing,” Harold said.

“Yes you can,” God said.

“I really can’t,” Harold said.

“You can do anything with my help,” God said.

“Anything?” Harold said.

“Trust me, Harold,” God said.

“I’d rather go back to tether ball,” Harold said.

God kept his patience with Harold because God is very patient even when we’re very not.

Finally, Harold only had one more question left. “When is this very important announcing slash singing event happening?”

“Tonight,” God said.

“TONIGHT?!” Harold thought to himself. “TONIGHT?!!!!!”

In heaven there’s no nighttime, only daytime, so Harold didn’t actually know what “tonight” meant but he sorta figured out from how God said it that “tonight” meant really really soon.

“I need to practice,” Harold said.

Harold went to a trumpeting angel and asked if he could practice his announcement.

“Ahem,” he began. “TODAY!... in the… country of Danielle, a shepherd has been born!”

“That doesn’t sound right,” the trumpeting angel said.

Harold went to a big scary angel. “TODAY!... a sheep is eating from a manger!”

That didn’t sound right either. With every attempt at the announcement, Harold relied more and more on his own strength, and only succeeded in becoming more and more nervous.

And then it was time to go.

How did he know it was time to go?

Because sometimes you just get that sense that something HAS to happen right now and YOU HAVE to do it, even if you can’t totally explain why. That’s usually God. And that’s what Harold felt.

And off Harold went from heaven to earth.

I bet you’re wondering how you get from heaven to earth. Or from earth to heaven.

Well stop asking so many questions!

What matters is Harold got there.

After all that practicing to make himself sound good, God’s instructions were a little foggy in Harold’s brain. Fortunately, he remembered that sheep have white fur.

Unfortunately, so do polar bears.

And so Harold landed on an iceberg near the Arctic Circle.

“TODAY!...”

ROAAARRR!

It turns out polar bears don’t like sharing their icebergs with angels.

Harold screamed and disappeared.

He thought back on what God had told him and, fortunately, remembered that sheep will be found with shepherds.

Unfortunately there were sheep with shepherds all over the world.

And so Harold appeared to shepherds on the coast of what would someday be Scotland.

“TODAY!... in the city of David, a Savior has been born--”

“The city of where?” one of the shepherds asked.

“David,” Harold said.

“Never heard of it,” another shepherd said.

And then the shepherds walked away.

Not exactly the electric response Harold was expecting.

Harold felt like a failure. Sometimes that happens when we’re doing what God asks but we don’t yet see anything good coming from it. This is especially true when we’re trying to do something all on our own. That’s usually the right time to do what Harold did right then and there.

He talked to God.

“Hi God, it’s me Harold. I’m doing that big thing you asked me to do and it’s not going so well. I kinda want to give up but you said I was precious and talented and so I’m going to keep going but could you help me know where to go and what to do?”

And in that moment, in a way I can’t explain and neither could Harold so just deal with it… Harold knew exactly where to go. And exactly what to do.

And so Harold appeared on a small hill outside a city. And on that hill were a bunch of sheep and a few shepherds. It was one of those calm clear nights where everything feels right. Not too hot. Not too cold. A sky full of stars. And silent. Which is probably why Harold nearly scared the shepherds to death when he said:

“Hi there!”

They turned, saw Harold, and SCREAMED. Some of them covered their faces. Harold wondered if they’d heard about the whole dinosaur incident.

“Don’t be afraid,” Harold said. “I bring you good news of great joy.”

That seemed to calm them down a bit.

Then, without pausing to overthink or worry, he just spoke and said, “Today a Savior has been born. In the city of David. Do you… happen to know where that is?”

The shepherds all pointed to the city behind them.

Phew.

Harold kept going.

“You will find this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

Harold didn’t specifically remember God telling him to mention the “swaddling clothes” part, and to be honest Harold didn’t even know what swaddling clothes were, but he felt God wanted him to say it so he said it and the shepherds nodded as if they knew what swaddling clothes were too which was another good sign.

“So yeah…” Harold said. “I guess that’s pretty much it.”

But that wasn’t it. HAROLD HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE SINGING PART!

Thankfully, God always sends help, even when we totally forget things.

Which is why, just then, a heavenly host of angels—the same ones who helped Harold earlier with the whole tether ball rope incident—appeared behind him.

“What are you all doing here?” he asked.

The other angels said, all together:

“Hark the Harold angel… SING!”

Harold’s eyes went wide as he remembered—THE SINGING!

But could he really sing? For a moment he thought about how bad he was. But he didn’t think for very long before he remembered how God had brought him this far. And so rather than be afraid, Harold chose to trust God.. and sang with all his might.

“Glory to the newborn king! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled… “

And would you believe… Harold sounded, well, beautiful. You see, even though scientists haven’t learned this yet, it just so happens that dinosaurs had absolutely terrible taste in music.

But not shepherds. In fact, they all agreed that this was probably the best song ever sung.

And Harold—God’s precious talented angel—just kept singing:

“Joyful, all ye nations rise! Join the triumph of the skies! With the angelic host proclaim: Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark! The Harold angel sings, glory to the newborn King!"