There's a lot of talk about angels these days. They're getting some pretty good press.

Angels are the intermediaries between God and the human race, according to every major religion in the world. Angels have always been recognized and respected as the messengers of God, bringing truth to the human race in times of trouble. The most important truth they bring is the reminder that God is part of us, and we are part of God, and we are never alone on this journey we call life.

Back in the old days, angels had to make personal appearances to small groups of people. They gave their message and disappeared into nothing. That's the way it was, before modern technology.

Thanks to television, we have first-hand access to 'angels' and their heavenly messages every week. "Touched By An Angel" became a hit program the first year it aired, and its rating stayed high for the full run. The influence is infinite; through the magic of re-runs, God's message of love for the human race gets repeated, and repeated, and repeated again. If there's anybody left in this country who doesn't know that God loves them, it's because they haven't been watching the right television shows.

"Joan of Arcadia" took it a step farther by having a teen-ager talk directly to God, who appears in her life in many guises to help her learn her life lessons while encouraging her to help others learn theirs. I've always thought that the unspoken message was as important as the spoken one: God is everywhere, and always with us if we are just willing to recognize Him in whatever form He is expressing through.

My favorite media angel was John Travolta's "Michael," who simply wasn't at all what we expected an angel to be at the same time that he was everything we ever wanted in one. My favorite line from that movie is one I use often: : "I'm not that kind of angel."

I enjoy the subtlety of these modern day messages about the invisible things in life. I sometimes get more food for thought from a movie that others see as pure entertainment than I do in a formal workshop setting. You can't help but wonder: who are angels, anyway? What do they look like, and where do they live, and what do they do when they aren't being messengers of God?

The answers to these questions depend on your basic life philosophy. If your vision of God is that of an old man sitting on a throne holding on to the Book of Life, then you will probably envision angels as human beings with wings and a glow around their bodies. If your perception of God is that He is a spiritual being with no physical form, then your perception of angels will probably be the same.

One of the more difficult concepts of spiritual truth is accepting that there is more to life than meets the eye, literally. The most important things in - and about - life are invisible. They are beyond our physical reality; we can't see, touch, taste, or hear them, and so we have a hard time confirming for ourselves 'what is real' and 'what is our imagination.' We have conditioned our physical minds to accept only physical reality; we may be more influenced in our search for truth by the movies we watch (because we can see and hear them) than by that little voice inside our head and heart, which offers no proof positive that it is, indeed, separate from us and not just a figment of our imagination.

I don't question the existence of angels; I'm confident that 'angelhood' is just one more level of consciousness that we all come to experience, sooner or later. Just as the angels offer their love and guidance to those of us on lower vibrationary levels, so we, in turn, offer our love and guidance to those working on a lower vibrationary level than we exist in. That's what God intended life to be: souls helping other souls in the never-ending journey back to God, and wholeness.

God always provides us with everything we need in order to grow spiritually. The changes taking place on every level all over the world make us all a little uncertain of what the future holds, and how all these changes will affect the life we lead. It's perfect timing for The Tess Syndrome - that warm and wonderful angel that we can see with our own eyes and hear with our own hears.

And what is her message? What is at the heart of The Tess Syndrome? It's the same in every episode, because it's certainly worth repeating: "God loves you." And - amazingly - millions of viewers who never really thought about it before realize that the proof of God's love is everywhere, if only we're willing to see it.

Thanks, Tess. We needed that.