He led me into a garden filled with small fruit trees and flowers. It had to be one of the most beautiful places in the entire school.

“So many colors,” said the teacher. “What do you see?”

“Red, blue, and purple flowers, yellow and green fruits, white lilies…”

“Why is the red flower red?” he asked.

“Because…that’s its color?” I replied. “I don’t understand.”

“The red flower is bathed in the light of all colors. It absorbs all colors except one-red. Red is the color of the one light it doesn’t receive or absorb. So red is the one color it reflects or gives back. Now what if a flower took in and kept all the colors of the light? What color would it be?”

“No color,” I said. “It would be dark. It would be a black flower.”

“Correct,” he said, “and not only with flowers but with all things. That which you take and keep to yourself is not that which you are…but that which you are not. It is that of which you are empty. It is those who take from this world and don’t give…who are empty. It is those who seek to acquire love from this world, but not to give love…who are the loveless. And it is those who take blessing but don’t give blessing…who are the unblessed…the black flowers.”

“So that which you give is that which you are.”

“Or what you become,” said the teacher. “It is those who give love who are the loved. It is those who give of their possessions who are rich. And it is those who bless who are blessed. So that which you would have your life to become is the very thing you must give. Therefore, live a life of giving love, and you will have love. Life a life of giving your possessions, and you will be rich. Live a life of blessing others, and your life will always be blessed. For the light shines on every flower. But each flower becomes the light it gives back. So His love shines on all. But only that which you give back is what you will be and become.”

He paused to pick up a white lily, which he held up to the sunlight.

“And what happens to those who keep nothing but give everything back?”

“They become white,” I answered.

“More than that,” he said. “They become light.”

The Mission: Commit to become a vessel of giving, to fully give of every blessing. Start today. And your life will become the reflection of God.

Proverbs 11:25-26; Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18

He led me up a high desert mountain and into a cave near its summit. Inside the cave, not far from the entrance, was an engraving of a human-like figure with outstretched wings.

“What is it?” I asked.

“An angel,” said the teacher.

“What do you know of angels?”

“They’re heavenly creatures…sent by God…with wings.”

“They don’t all have wings,” he said. There are many different kinds of angels…cherubim, seraphim, warring angels, ministering angels, and then…there are other angels.”

“The other angels?”

“The earth angels,’ he said, “those who walk the earth in flesh and blood, His earthbound division…different from the others but angels nonetheless.”

“I thought an angel was a being not of flesh and blood.”

“The Scriptures say differently. The word for angel in the Hebrew Scriptures is malakh. And in the New Testament Scriptures, the word is the Greek angelos. It is written, ‘Then spoke Haggai, the Lord’s malakh.’ And of the man knows as John the Baptizer, the Messiah said, ‘This is he of whom it is written, “Behold I will send My angelos.’” Haggai and John were both of flesh and blood, and yet they are both called angels-angels of God. What is an angel? It is a being sent by God, a messenger, an emissary on a divine assignment, bringing God’s message, especially to those who dwell on earth.”

“So who are the earth angels?”

“Those who are born again,” he said, “born from above, born from heaven, those who bear the message of heaven to those who dwell on earth.”

“And the message?”

“The good news. In Greek it is called the euangel, in English, the evangel as in evangelism. Within each of these words is another word. Do you see?”

“The word angel.”

“Exactly. It is no accident. For if you will bear the message of heaven to those of earth, your life will become angelic. So take up your angelic assignment and bring good tidings, the divine message, to those on earth. For you are His earth angel.”

The Mission: Today, start fulfilling your angelic mission. Bear the heavenly message to those on earth. Live this day as His earth angel.

Haggai 1:13; Malachi 3:1; Tobit 12:6-22; Mark 16:15; Luke 7:24-27

The Book of Mysteries