Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14
Looking back over my life I've sometimes wondered how much angels may have helped me even when I didn't realise it. The verse from Hebrews certainly suggests that they are working hard on our behalf. Most of us don't claim to have seen an angel which can make it difficult to detect their activity. The chances are they don't have wings for as David Pawson has said if they did then we could hardly have shown them hospitality without knowing it! (See Hebrews 13:1). But I've had some 'near misses' in my life which certainly makes me wonder if there were angels helping me through.
When I was 18 and at sea on an oil tanker the ship suffered a massive explosion. I could easily have been killed, but only cut my toe on some broken glass. I've been in a car that went into a massive skid at high speed on a mud road and stopped just short of hitting a telegraph pole. I've been thrown out of a canoe in a fast flowing river while I wasn't wearing a life-jacket and with my wife I've been ambushed and robbed in Barcelona.
But the most obviously scary event was a few years ago when I and my wife were walking around a large public garden in South Africa. We'd detoured away to a remote part of the garden to look at some ancient paintings on a rock face when we were approached by three teenage boys who demanded our money - all of our money. The next few moments were extraordinary as I was trying to get myself between my wife and these teenagers while telling her to run and at the same time taking coins out of my pocket and offering them to the boy nearest to me. At this point the largest lad approached me with a big rock in his hand which he held over my head, but my wife oblivious of the threat to me, for she simply didn't see the boy with the rock, stood her ground and shouted at the other two boys in fine grandmotherly tones to leave us alone and go away. It was her voice that alerted a gardener, whom neither of us had seen, some 50 or so yards away and who then rushed towards us at high speed. The boys saw him coming, dropped the rock, and took flight. I've often wondered if I'd still be here if the boy had smashed the rock into my head. But even more I've wondered how busy the angels were that afternoon in giving us protection. To me an angel can definitely appear in the shape of a fast moving gardener!
The Bible tells us we will judge angels. (1 Cor. 6:3) Perhaps in eternity we will get the full story of what angels have done for us during our lives and we'll be able to judge just how much they've helped us.