And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (Acts 6:15 ESV)
Angel Faces
I have performed a lot of weddings. And something happens while the groom waits for the bride… the bride, walking down the aisle, looks different. It is not merely the makeup or hairstyle. It is not merely the dress or the flowers. It is not merely the excitement of the day.
She usually reflects something. Maybe it is commitment. Maybe it is tradition. Maybe it is love.
Perhaps that is similar to what happened to Stephen’s face as he was in the synagogue.
Or perhaps it was something more straightforward. Stephen, with his heart, mind, soul, strength, body, and emotions focused on Jesus might have somehow reflected Jesus.
It probably was not something you could paint, or photograph, or sculpt. Medieval artists painted halos on the heads of Christians because they knew that something, perhaps not something visible, but something somehow sense-able was present when Christians were ‘looking’ to Jesus.
Luke called it an angel face.
We are concerned about our physical appearance.
But we have an appearance even richer.
We can, with our actions, with our words, with our thoughts, with our emotions, with our decisions, with our relationships, with our motivations, with our attention, with our very lives, reflect Jesus, too.
We are peculiar, we can have angel faces.