What Exactly are Angels?

Many stories, especially those that have come to the big screen or television, have depicted angels as humans who've passed on from this world and are now back in a different form to assist us. Yet the Bible teaches that angels and humans are completely different, created differently and separately by God. Angels don't become humans and humans don't become angels. They're as different from each other as birds are from fish. Instead, angels are depicted in the Bible as powerful and majestic beings that live in Gods presence and work in his service.

We need to be careful not to confuse how we treat truth and how we treat fiction with our children. Angels aren't in the same category as Tinkerbel and the tooth fairy, imaginary characters we can make up stories about to suit the moment. If we tell our kids that there's an angel behind every star, or that many angels can fit on the head of a pin, or that they themselves will become angels when they die, or that angels look like Cupid, or that Cupid is a real angel, our children will eventually question everything else we teach them about our faith.

When we're dealing with biblical information and truth- even about fantastic issues such as heaven and angels it's important that we either give our children accurate answers or tell them that we don't know or aren't sure. And if we're not sure, we can look up with our children the various stories and verses in the Bible that mention angels and talk about the issue in that context. With our younger children, we can read all the stories in their Bible storybooks that menion angles.