The Usefulness of Angel Messages

No electricity? No problem! Angel messages lead to a family's perfect Christmas.

By Ridley Pearson, St. Louis, MO

My family and I were leaving on a Christmas vacation. Now I'm not one of those guys who thinks that God has a big beard and comes to my bed and says, "Listen to me. Listen to my angels." Thoughts enter my head, my consciousness, and I either am alert enough to pay attention to them or not. I'm still working on this. There are some I let go by. But on this occasion, I listened.

As I was packing up my office, I had a thought. It wasn't a voice; it wasn't a guy with a beard. It simply occurred to me that this time I should bring the biggest lantern flashlight I own. Now, I have several different size flashlights. I'm an Eagle Scout, so I carry three flashlights in my backpack; it's just who I am. But I would not typically bring the biggest lantern. Something -- someone -- told me to.

We get to Idaho and have a fun time skiing. We're staying at my mother's remote log cabin, which is heated by electricity but has a wood stove. Months earlier, my brother and I had thought about changing out the wood stove for a gas fireplace because it would be easier for our mother to light. But the gas fireplace requires electricity to light. For "whatever reason" (another thought listened to) we decided not to make the change. We stayed with the wood stove.

On Christmas Eve morning, I walked into our girls' room, and it was very, very cold. They'd been sleeping in there for a week this way, but for seemingly "no reason," I decided to turn the heat way up before we went off skiing. When we got back, their room was a sauna. Everything in the room had warmed up.

At 10 pm, after a wonderful day and dinner, the lights flashed and went dark. We were in a total blackout. Then they popped back on. But being a Boy Scout and knowing the way the electrical system works at my mom's house, I went downstairs and filled every pot I could find in the kitchen with fresh water. When the electricity goes out, the water pump shuts down, and you can't get any fresh water.

I also thought to rebuild the wood fire, planning on building it extremely hot to fill the house with heat. When I went to rebuild it, I found a big can of matches behind the wood stove. DANGER! When the stove gets hot, the matches ignite, and the house burns down. Was it just "lucky" that I happened to find that can of matches? I moved them way away from the stove, lit it, and went to bed with the power still on.

At two in the morning, I heard the phone ring and my mom's voice from another room. Fearing a family problem, and hearing my mom's voice, I ran downstairs, realizing on my way down that the power was out. The house was freezing. (But not my daughters' room, which had all that stored heat still lingering.) That's what the phone call was about: my sister, who lived about ten miles away, was also without power.

It was pitch black and getting colder inside -- minus 4 degrees outside -- so I restoked the stove, put blankets on my mother, went back upstairs, and went to bed.

I woke real early the next morning -- Christmas morning -- to find the power was still out: no water, no heat. No light. But I had my lantern flashlight with me -- my honkin' big flashlight! We had plenty of wood for the wood -- not gas! -- stove. And we had about six pots filled with water because I'd thought to fill them while we still had power. In the cold and the dark, I had exactly what I needed to make tea and coffee, cook oatmeal, and get things ready for Christmas morning.

As it turned out, because I'd thought about all the possibilities if the power remained out, we had a terrific Christmas. A memorable Christmas! Was it me, or was it angel messages? I tend to think it's a little bit of both. It never hurts to listen. And if you happen to be listening to God, all the better!

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