Do you believe in angels? No, I mean real angels - God-created multi-purposed spirits that are so supernatural and out of our realm of understanding that all we can say when we encounter one would be "Wow! That was from God!"
I'm talking about the faithful and true angels that are loyal to God, not the fallen ones.
In my sixty-eight years of life, I have had two encounters with angels. Three, if you count the one who visited my mom when she was sick. In this series I will share with you these encounters, but the one I want to talk to you about the most, is the angel that inhabited my senior dog in her last years of life.
Gracie was not really an angel, I know that, even though I often referred to her as an angel. She was a dog. A precious, wonderful, loving companion that God had given me in 2004 and one that I enjoyed and loved deeply and am grateful for.
Biblically, angel means a being who has greater power and ability than humans and who serves as God's messenger or servant. There are different forms and statuses of angels.
I had been suspect that God was showing me some things all along, through Gracie and all that we were going through - especially in that last year of her life. But on that day we sat her on that cold hard table, an iv hooked to her leg, as the vet waited for our okay to start the iv to end her life here in this world, on that day ----- when she collapsed onto that table and they carried her out of the room and I screamed in pain because my baby was gone ----- on that day ----- at precisely that moment, God said to me, "now you know how I feel." And to further feed my understanding, He laid it upon my heart that my pain was only a fraction of the pain he feels for us, His children, as we experience death and dying and an eternity separated from Him when we choose death over life.
Gracie did not choose death. A fallen world sealed her fate. I will see her again though, because she was innocent. Beautiful. God's creation. And He will restore her in heaven, and she will be in the new earth - good as new. While she was here I am convinced she was inhabited by an angel with so many messages for me... so much direction.
God uses many ways to tell us things, teach us, and sow us what His plans are for him. So Gracie is not an angel, like you said. But maybe His messenger!