For a mere $12.95 (plus shipping and handling) you and I can purchase the new book Angelwhispers. According to an ad in a recent Parade magazine, the book "reveals amazing new 'Angel Recognition' technique." "It cracks the code on how to recognize when your angels are talking to you."

Why the plural? Because, according to the ad you have not one, but "several guardian angels guiding you through life" who can "help solve your money worries, relationship issues, and health problems."

"Act promptly and," the ad assures us, "you'll receive the FREE BONUS REPORT: '7 Ways to Let Your Angels Help Solve Your Weight Problem.'"

And all just in time for Christmas — the time of year that most people are likely to give at least a fleeting thought or two to angels. "Christmas angels" show up in malls, in ads, in the gilded graphics of Christmas cards, and staring in plastic serenity from Christmas trees branches.

The connection is no surprise since angels drive the biblical narrative about the birth of Jesus. An angel announced John the Baptist's conception (Luke 1:11-22) and Jesus' conception (Luke 1:26-36). An angel guided Joseph's decision-making when he learned Mary was pregnant before their marriage and again after the Magi's visit (Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15). Perhaps most memorable, an angel announced the birth of Jesus to a group of shepherds as they tended their flocks, "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased'" (Luke 2:8-15). So during Advent and Christmas, we can't help but think about angels.

But what exactly should we to think about them? Are there guardian angels? Do angels interact with us on a regular basis? If so, should we trust the angels who interact with us? Can angels really solve my weight problem?

Years ago when I was in college, four of us packed into an old Volkswagen Beetle. As we came down a hill, the driver didn't see the stop sign at the intersection at the bottom of the hill. That is, until he saw the pickup truck in the intersection just ahead of us. He slammed on the breaks and the old VW stopped. There was no squealing of tires, no smell of acrid rubber, no skid or jolt. We just stopped suddenly, but gently. I didn't see anything, but I still say it was the work of a rather burly angel.

It certainly could have been since angels protect God's people. King David wrote, "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them" (Psalm 34:7). Does this mean that God assigns a "guardian angel" to each of us as a celestial bodyguard? Probably not. It does mean, however, that God who alone is our protector sends us what we need. And sometimes we need angels.

The Hebrew and Greek words translated "angel" mean "messenger." Angels are spirits whom God created for His glory, pleasure and purpose. God's angels are holy, see Him face-to-face, offer Him endless worship, and do His bidding including serving as messengers as they did at the birth of Jesus.

A friend of mine made and lost at least two fortunes in the drug business. (No, he didn't work for Squibb.) He says that he had just walked out of the bank having withdrawn his last $20 when a young woman turned to him and asked, "Do you know Jesus?" He looked at her, "You mean Jesus [hay-soos], the junkie?" Then he glanced to see who heard what he had said. When he looked back she was gone. He had no idea at the time, but that encounter was his first step on a journey from "Jesus the junkie" to Jesus the Savior. He believes the woman was an angel with the message that guided him to Christ. I see no biblical reason to think he's mistaken.

Having said that, God's angels are God's messengers with God's message. They point to the God of the Bible who is the Holy Trinity and to the gospel. Saint Paul wrote, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (Galatians 1:8).

This is where popular notions about angels are suspect. The angels of popular culture don't focus on God and his Son. They focus on me. Their concerns, as the Angelwhispers ad makes plain, are improving my life, improving my relationships, improving my luck, and helping me make more money while losing weight. Paul's gospel, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," isn't even on a distant horizon.

This is consistent with the biblical idea that there are angels who are not, or more accurately, who are no longer God's angels. Satan, an angel who abused his freedom to rebel against God, masquerades as an angel of light to lead people into rebellion and misery like his own (2 Corinthians 11:14). As Satan declares in Milton's Paradise Lost:

To do aught good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil.

Through history, various religions that have taken the Christian gospel and added new twists have found their sources in "angelic" visitations and "angelic" messages.

Listening to supernatural messengers requires the same discernment we apply to human messengers. Saint John warned:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. (1 John 4:1-3a)

In light of this, it should be pointed out that angels are not simply protectors and bearers of good news. While angels blowing trumpets have become a Christmas staple, that image is not from the Christmas story. It comes from the book of the Revelation. Angels with trumpets announce God's judgment, purge the earth, and herald the eternal Kingdom of God. Reading Revelation 8:6-11:19 makes you look at ornamental angels with trumpets in a whole new and somewhat startling light.

Yet in this age, the daughter of the editor of a Christian journal was in the hospital apparently dying. Late at night, a nurse looked into her room and saw a shimmering figure bent over the little girl. The next morning her doctors were shocked at her sudden and decisive turn toward full recovery.

In his preface to The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis noted, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them."

Lewis's comment about devils applies equally to angels. To disbelieve — regardless of whether that is actual disbelief or practical disbelief — is to shut our eyes and stop our ears to God's providential care for us through his servants.

An "excessive and unhealthy interest" will lead us to seek angels around every corner and under every bed. It can lead us even to pray to angels or worship angels thus distracting us from God, the One whom the angels unceasingly worship and adore.

While God has always sent and still sends angels to protect and direct his people, gratitude always and ever, world without end belongs not to angels, but to the God we know in Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel, God-with-Us whose first and second comings we celebrate with the entire host of Heaven.