The Story Behind the Story

Jacob’s Ladder

Monica: “Nothing, not death or life or war,

not the present, or the future, or the past,

no one, no creature on this earth

can separate you from the love of God”

The Story Behind the Story

What if Monica was committed to a mental hospital for thinking she was an angel?

One of the biggest challenges we face on Touched by an Angel is how to show presumably “perfect” angels in conflict. The answer is that angels aren’t perfect. That’s one of the “theological rules” of the series.

Every television series needs a set of rules that the writers can follow to keep the episodes consistent. Usually it doesn’t matter what the rules are, as long as they don’t change. Otherwise, the audience gets confused, frustrated and finally disenchanted.

Star Trek, for example, began with an unlimited galaxy and a single Federation “prime directive.” Then, Gene Roddenberry brilliantly populated the universe with Klingons and Vulcans and other fantastic creatures. Their habits and peculiarities were easily accepted because, until then, no one had ever heard of Klingons and Vulcans.

Angels were a whole different ball game. Angels have been depicted in and written of in Scripture and literature for centuries. Everyone, if they think about angels at all, has a very personal idea of what an angel is, what an angel looks like and how an angel should act.

On top of that, when you’re talking about angels, you’re talking about God. And to most people, God means religion, and folks just don’t trust television to treat religion with much respect. As a matter of fact, many, many letters our second year were from new converts to the show who had purposely avoided Touched the first season because they were afraid of what Hollywood would do to angels.

People who believe in angels don’t like to see them trivialized or expanded into wish-granting fairies. On the other hand, angel enthusiasts vary greatly in their beliefs and experience. It was inevitable that we were not going to please all the people all the time.

Nevertheless, we had to start somewhere when we were hired to redesign the series. With only three weeks to create a “show bible”, the natural place to turn was to the Bible itself. There, it was clear that angels had very specific duties and purposes: to deliver messages, to comfort, to protect, and occasionally to deliver healing.

Some of the other “Touched by an Angel” rules we follow are:

a. Angels do not have power over life and death. That’s what God is for. If Monica raised somebody from the dead one week, what could she possibly do for an encore?

b. 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.

c. Angels do not disobey God’s orders without serious consequences.

d. Angels, in the strictest of the 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.

e. Angels are not superstitious.

f. 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.

g. Angels do not allow themselves to the focus of worship. Their purpose is to serve and glorify their Creator.

h. 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.

i. 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.

j. 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.

k. Angels are not all in the choir. Somewhat tone-deaf Monica, for example, didn’t perform well there, and was quickly transferred to other “departments” – Annunciations, Search and Rescue, Casework etc.

l. 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.

m. Angels need to work on a “need to know” basis. They don’t know everything. God does.

n. Angels are not “recycled dead people”, but created beings, creatures fashioned by God. They are not and never were human, nut they possess the very human gift of free will. It allows them, as it does us, to make our own choices. Usually, angels make the right ones. Fortunately, sometimes the plot thickens when they make the wrong choices. Thank God for free will. We couldn’t write television shows without it!

“Jacob’s Ladder” explores that mysterious realm between heaven and earth where angels spend so much time. It is a unique episode in that it seems to break practically every one of our “angel rules.” What happens to angels who fail? What happens when angels forget the very message they have been sent to share? What happens when angels forget God Himself and begin to display the human qualities of guilt, self-doubt, and fear?

And yet, just when we’ve written ourselves into a tight theological corner, we discover once again that God is faithful. As Monica reassures her fallen friend: “Nothing … can separate us from the love of God.”

And that is the best “angel rule” of all.

- M.W.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 788