An uneasiness was brewing, but none of the angels could understand the reason for concern despite an eerie song echoing throughout the portals of heaven. “Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel…”
Gathering the celestial beings, Michael, the commander of the angelic realm, announces that the Father was once again going to send a deliverer. But this deliverer would come from heaven itself and would free people from their bondage to sin – something no human could do. “For God so loves the world that He is going to send His one… and only…” Michael pauses for a brief moment, knowing that the next word out of his mouth would change not only heaven, but earth as well “…Son.” Cheers go up from a myriad of angelic beings. Guardian, however, an endearing, younger angel, is wrought with concern. If the Son was being sent, that meant that He was… leaving. Would He ever return? How could this be? And besides, what is Man, that God would take thought of him?
Each angel will play a role in this redemptive plan of God’s. For Guardian, well, it turns out he was given the perfect name the day he was created. For he was chosen to accompany the Son – to guard Him in all His ways lest He strike His foot against a stone. Gabriel announces God’s plan to Mary – that she would bear God’s Son, the Savior of the world. And on the outskirts of Bethlehem, shepherds were the first to hear of the Son’s arrival. Running to the stable, Nathaniel is the last to arrive, but the only one bearing a gift – a lamb he had been carving as he watched over the sheep. He lays the unfinished lamb at the feet of Jesus. Mary keeps the lamb – treasuring it in her heart.
Thirty years later, as all are gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, Mary seeks out Nathaniel the shepherd, now turned carpenter. For though an angel rescued Jesus’ family from Herod’s sword, his own infant son was slaughtered right in front of him.
And now, his suspicions are confirmed. This popular teacher, this miracle worker named Jesus, is indeed the One he had worshiped that night in Bethlehem and is now being paraded through the streets of Jerusalem.Spiritual warfare is increasing as God’s redemptive plan is unfolding. Satan’s lies are confusing Guardian, and he is certain that he is failing the Son. Since the Garden of Eden, Satan’s one strategy, to create doubt, is tested on Jesus Himself. The crowds are now turning on Jesus and the religious and political leaders are condemning Him to death – death on a Roman cross.
Confiscating a crossbeam from Nathaniel’s carpenter shop, the soldiers lead Jesus to His death. Nathaniel recounts the horror of the night the soldiers stripped his son from his arms. Upon visiting the now empty cross and hoping to find some satisfaction and revenge, Nathaniel sees his name branded upon the beam. Grabbing a ladder and rock, he desperately tries to scrape his name off, wanting nothing to do with this Jesus – in life nor in death. But blood stains his hands. He desperately picks up a linen on the ground to wipe away the stains, but the carved lamb rolls out of the cloth that Mary had placed there. Blood stains the lamb as well. Guilt and shame overwhelm Nathaniel. It’s at the foot of the cross that Mary, Guardian, and Nathaniel each come to understand the Father’s redeeming love in sending His one and only Son. Upon Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, all of heaven and nature sing together of the wonders of His love.