Guardian Angels Series

Have you ever wondered if you have met an angel? Would you recognize him if you saw him? Most likely not. After all, they can change their form and they would probably frighten most people if they appeared in their heavenly form. Normally, while angels may hover near us, they are tasked to remain at the ready to help us but not interfere with our daily lives until an appointed time or set of circumstances divined by God?

But nothing I gather from the Bible says we cannot talk to angels or thank them. But they are not at or beck and call any time we want them to intercede on our behalf. Yes, I think we can talk to angels. I know when I was warned about and diverted away from a very severe, potential, high-speed freeway accident I thanked my guardian angel out loud. But angels usually make their appearance if God has a message for us or if significant moments are about to happen according to God’s purposes. With all that and more in mind, I wonder that if I speak out loud or think good thoughts about my beloved, deceased parents and grandparents that I love them and miss them, do the angles ever pass along our kind thoughts? The Bible seems silent on this specific topic, but since they are messengers, might they do that?

Beginning in the Old Testament Genesis, we learned of angels. Angels protected Eden after the Fall. The evidence of angels is also reported in the New Testament, as well. Nevertheless, many people mistakenly believe the first New Testament interaction with an angel happened to Mary and Joseph. Those people would be wrong. Zacharias has that honor because an angel of the Lord, Gabriel, appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”

Angels aren’t the childlike figures we see on greeting cards that rest idyllically on puffy, white clouds. Nor do they float around in white robes playing harps under golden halos. We will not really know what the different variation of angles look like until we see them in heaven.