Angelus Interruptus

When the divine goes missing, even angels must learn to innovate—if only to stop their creations from falling apart

In a celestial office where angels once carried out divine orders, Luther finds themself adrift. With God mysteriously absent and creation spiraling into chaos, even the simplest tasks have become a cosmic struggle.

Angelus Interruptus by Glory Fink

Luther was a middle management angel from the Hezebiah sector. They and their team were in charge of watching over insect populations and when a need arose encouraging new insect species to form. A fairly cushy job as far as these things go. But lately, with the seeming disappearance of God, Luther feared that they and their team were not doing as good a job as they used to under God’s direct guidance.

Without God around to give final approval or veto new insect species, things were going a bit wonky. When the team tried to make a new insect it either looked dull and boring or laughably ridiculous. Luther still shuddered, remembering that creature the team made up in the backroom. It had a large scarab-like body with a rainbow sheen on top, gigantic dragonfly wings, three different sets of legs from three different genus of insects and for some inexplicable reason they had whitewashed the underside of the body.

Before Luther even asked about its purpose a wing and 2 legs had fallen off it. Luther gingerly put the pseudo insect back down on the table, took a half step back and said, “That is definitely not something The Lord made.” Then he backed out of the room and crawled under his desk to weep.

After a bit Janelle gently slipped Luther’s Urdu doll under their desk and left them alone. If God did not see fit to offer them comfort at least they had the doll they had found among the grasslands when they were a new angel patrolling the land and encouraging young things to grow. How they had enjoyed those times. When they knew their purpose and had no trouble doing it. Now, Luther mostly felt lost and adrift, without a clear idea of what they were supposed to be doing or how to accomplish it.

Luther was pulled away from their reverie by the sounds of a heated debate between an angel and a demon. These mixers were supposed to be lighthearted and enjoyable. A way to take a rest from the cares and worries of their job assignments and just enjoy hanging out with old friends, the gorgeous scenery and the fabulous fruit juices. But of late more arguments seemed to be breaking out. This particular argument seemed to be about whether it was ok for angels and demons to innovate within their jobs or if they should stick to their original job descriptions.

“Astreen, if we stayed with the original job descriptions the humans would have outpaced us hundreds of years ago.” Jerfert insisted.

Astreen replied, “Jefert, all I’m saying is that The All-Knowing One gave us instructions for a reason. And if he has not seen the wisdom to change or adjust it, neither should we.”

“I agree that we should keep with the spirit of our assignments and stick with its purpose but we don’t have to stay in the stone age to do it. No where in any instructions He Who is The Creator of Worlds gave me was I ever told, ‘and only this with no variance or improvement.’ Therefore it’s alright for us to adjust with the times. As the humans change, so should we.” Jefert countered.

“Please illustrate your point Jefert.” Astreen requested.

Jefert said, “As you wish, Astreen. Once upon a time my job was to bedevil the humans. I was told by The Most High One to annoy, frustrate, irritate, tempt and in any way possible to make the humans curse, feel and act negatively to each other and in general to commit sins.

Ages ago, this meant that I poked a human with a stick or sang an irritating, mocking song and on days I was in my prime I would even untie the family goat and steer it towards the fields to wreak havoc. I dare you to poke a human with a stick these days. He’ll shoot at you or punch you and steal your shoes! You’ve got to change with the times or you will no longer be doing your job correctly.”