Hi everyone! Here's the *official* list of TBAA angel rules as written by its brilliant producer Martha Williamson.
Of course it's not as if we devoted angel fans don't know them already...it's just nice to review things once in a while *wink*
Enjoy the informative lesson!
1. Angels have very specific duties and purposes: to deliver messages, to comfort, to protect, and occasionally to deliver healing.
2. Angels do not have power over life and death. That's what God is for. Besides, if Monica raised somebody from the dead one week, what could she possibly do for an encore?
3. Angels do not lie. "Love is our job and truth is our stock in trade," says Sam, the "secret angel" played by Emmy-award-winning actor Paul Winfield. In one episode, Monica evades the truth, tells a lie by omission, and is banished to an unidentified netherworld. It is the same place Tess visited when she confronted Satan with hate instead of love.
4. Angels do not disobey God's orders without serious consequences. God doesn't make mistakes, even if the plan is not clear to humans or angels. He knows what He's doing; He's been doing this for years!
5. Angels, in the strictest of terms, do not "have faith." "Faith is the substance of things unseen," Monica reminds us. And having seen God and His kingdom, angels already know what we humans must simply have faith in. It is that quality of faith and the occasional doubts we must overcome that give humans a strength that angels can only admire.
6. Angels are not superstitious. "Luck," says Tess, "is when God wishes to remain anonymous."
7. Angels cannot change the past, nor do they predict or see into the future. Only in rare cases are they given revelation from God which, in turn, they are bound to reveal to a human. When a teenage unwed mother struggles to give up her baby for adoption ("Cassie's Choice"), Monica is allowed to reassure the girl that her daughter has inherited her musical talent and will become a great musician.
8. Angels do not allow themselves to be the focus of worship. Their purpose is to serve and glorify their Creator.
9. Angels must perform their duties on earth with human bodies that don't always do what they want them to do. Their bodies, though perfectly healthy, are often susceptible to human frailty and temptation. One of Monica's most charming "flaws" is her weakness for coffee, especially decaf mocha latte. Because her body has been relatively unsullied by earthbound life, she and other angels will occasionally have negative and even dangerous responses to toxins, drugs, and new experiences.
10. Special dispensation: occasionally, God will lift the rules of nature or time or physics to accomplish His purpose. The dying father in "Till We Meet Again" stunned his family by leaving his deathbed to serenade them one last time on the family piano. Events like this fall under the Big Miracle Category.
11. The Angel of Death is nothing to be afraid of. He does not pick the day or the hour of death. Nor does he dispense judgment. Being the Angel of Death is a plum job for any angel, a privilege and a sacred responsibility.
12. Angels are not all in the choir. Somewhat tone-deaf Monica, for example, didn't perform well there, and was quickly transferred to another "departments": Annunciations, Search and Rescue, Casework, etc.
13. Angels, though capable of performing small miracles with the power God allows them, prefer to rely on truth rather than tricks to make a point. Occasionally Monica will find herself without any power at all, except her gift of sharing God's love with words. Such circumstances inevitably teach Monica another lesson in faith and in the human condition.
14. Angels work on a "need to know" basis. They don't know everything. God does. Sometimes Tess and Monica begin an assignment without all the details. Occasionally, Tess cannot reveal the whole plan to Monica or Andrew. Then they just have to "wing it."
15. Angels are not "recycled dead people," but created beings, creatures fashioned by God. They are not and never were human, but they possess the very human gift of free will. It allows them, as it does us, to make their own choices. Usually, angels make the right one. Fortunately, sometimes the plot thickens when they make the wrong choices. Thank God for free will. Television show plots can't do without it!
16. God is faithful. As Monica reassures her fallen friend Claire in "Jacob's Ladder", "Nothing?can separate us from the love of God."
And that is the best "angel rule" of all.
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