Messages from Heaven- Hope for the Holidays

In this heartwarming episode, we embrace the spirit of the holiday season in a way you've never experienced before. We bring you a collection of extraordinary stories, each one filled with heavenly signs that emerge during the holy season, bringing layers of deeper meaning and pure joy.

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Transcript

Hope for the Holidays

Speaker 1 0:00

Love , peace , peace and peace . Hello everyone , welcome to CC Airwaves . My name is Paige Matillo and I'm here with my co-host , joel Hansel .

Speaker 2 0:39

How's it going today ? Paige .

Speaker 1 0:40

It's going good , joel . How are you doing ?

Speaker 2 0:43

I am excited because the holiday season is upon us , and that means for me lots of vacation time .

Speaker 1 0:53

Yeah , same here , and I am very excited to take a well needed break . But we didn't want to leave our listeners hanging without any new episodes of CC Airwaves to listen to . So here we are . So this episode focuses on hope for the holidays . We understand that the holidays are a really difficult time for many who have missed or lost their loved ones , and we want to offer comfort and a gentle reminder in today's episode that , even if your loved one is not here physically , they still watch over us from heaven . The bond that we have with them remains unbroken and we cherish the hope of the reunion that is to come . So we're going to dive into these stories about finding hope during the holidays .

Speaker 1 1:40

This first story was submitted by Kim W when I was 17 , a fire destroyed my home and took my father's life . As Christmas approached , we were constantly reminded of what we had lost . We moved to a modest apartment to get our lives back on track . In early December , a package arrived . It was an advent calendar with no return address . We opened the first compartment and the notes said bake cookies and share them with your neighbors . Though our kitchen was a fraction of what we once had , we made a small batch of cookies and distributed them .

Speaker 1 2:17

The smiles and gratitude we received warmed our hearts in ways we hadn't felt in months . Each day brought a new act of kindness Donate warm clothes , help shovel snow for the elderly , write a thank you note to local firefighters , etc . Through these acts , not only did we find a community , but we also began to see our father and everything . He had always been a pillar of kindness and this calendar seemed to echo his teachings and his spirit . By the time Christmas arrived , our apartment was filled with thank you cards , gifts and invitations , but , more importantly , our hearts were filled with love , gratitude and purpose . This calendar , this mysterious gift , was more than just an advent of kindness . It was our father guiding us from heaven . Have you ever really used an advent calendar before Joel ?

Speaker 2 3:06

Oh , many times , many times .

Speaker 1 3:08

See , I have used them and I've never seen one that has given me tasks to do for other people . It's always been Christmas socks , candy , other sorts of things . I think that's really a nice advent calendar to have to give to others .

Speaker 2 3:24

Well , it's also been a very long time since I was a father with young children at home where we used the advent calendar , or was a child myself and we had the advent calendars . But I do remember one in particular . I believe it had you open it up and it had like little scripture passages . Oh , that's nice that kind of led up to the whole birth of Christ . I do remember that .

Speaker 1 3:55

That's a good one , and what a beautiful gift for this family to receive an advent calendar that not only helped them create a community around them that they didn't have , but also come closer together and remember their father .

Speaker 2 4:08

Well , and it also truly , truly illustrates the saying that you know , it's best to give than to receive . And they , this family , obviously received as a result of their giving , but they didn't receive like what most of us expect giving to be , especially at Christmas time . So their , their gift was really having their hearts filled with with joy and purpose and meaning .

Speaker 1 4:44

It was a special gift and , some would say , the true meaning of Christmas .

Speaker 2 4:50

Story number two was submitted by Lydia H . The day after my mom passed away , my dad , in what seemed to be a blind rage of grief , began discarding her belongings . He had two categories donate and throw away . There was no other option . There was one particular item I had desperately hoped to keep a unique brooch my mom always wore in special occasions , with her initials engraved on the back . Before I could save it , it was gone . I was unsure if it had been thrown out by my dad or donated , and he didn't know either . I was devastated .

Speaker 2 5:34

When I moved out , the distance between me and my dad grew , filled with years of silence and pain . I tried to move forward , but there was always a void . Right before Christmas , I was shopping for last minute presents . I was exhausted and I wanted to go home . While I was stopped at a stoplight , I saw the new goodwill that had just opened and decided to go look inside . As I was browsing , I saw something familiar . It was the brooch . My heart raced as I flipped it over and there were her initials . It felt like God was giving me a second chance .

Speaker 2 6:12

I bought the brooch and dialed my father's number . After a few rings he answered . I told him about finding the brooch , and there was a long pause . For the first time in years , we talked . He shared how he felt guilty , about how he acted and how he should never , ever , erase her memory . This brooch was not just a bridge to my mother , but also a bridge between a father and a daughter who had lost their way . I realized that my mom , in her own special way , had gifted us the greatest Christmas miracle reconciliation .

Speaker 1 6:50

Oh , my goodness , that story warms my heart . It just makes me think about something that we always talk about , and it's how different people grieve in different ways . So the father obviously was in what she stated as a blind rage of grief , and he just wanted everything gone . He didn't want any reminders . I think that he was just in so much pain he didn't give any thought to if his daughter maybe would want to keep any of those items , or if she maybe wants to keep the brooch and then give it to her child and pass along the memory of her mother for years to come . It's really sad , though , that it just caused them to have such a divide that they didn't speak for years .

Speaker 2 7:35

It's not uncommon for two people to have an argument on such a scale that it does result in years going by and those are years that you just can't get back .

Speaker 1 7:47

I have no doubt that the mother saw this from heaven , said enough is enough . You two need each other . There's obviously a void in both of your lives and this year we're getting together for the holidays because , in her own special way , she was there .

Speaker 2 8:02

For sure .

Speaker 1 8:05

So this next story was submitted by Cynthia H . My grandma and I had a special Christmas ritual We'd wake up early , make a pot of her famous cocoa and decorate the Christmas tree together . Last year was my first Christmas without her , and the idea of decorating the tree by myself made me sad . I almost didn't do it , but my mom kept insisting . I continue the tradition .

Speaker 1 8:28

Reluctantly , I opened the old decoration box . As I looked through the familiar trinkets , my hand brushed against something I didn't recognize A delicate glass ornament shaped like an angel with a shimmering gold halo . In all of our years of decorating I'd never seen it before . I don't know what it was , but when I touched the ornament it felt like my grandma was there with me as I decorated the tree . I felt warmth and comfort instead of sorrow . The tree looked more beautiful than ever . I placed the angel ornament at the very top , letting it shine brightly . I knew that , while my grandma might not be with us physically , her spirit was alive and well , guiding us toward healing , and that was the greatest gift I could have ever received .

Speaker 2 9:14

I don't know about you , paige , but I have at home a box of my ornaments from my lifetime . My wife has a box of ornaments from her lifetime and my son has his ornaments . And every year , as we decorate the Christmas tree with these ornaments and you pull out each ornament , there's a story and it's fun to tell those stories and to remember the stories . And have those memories and , it's true , it's like my grandparents are still there with us because , lord knows , there's a good two , three dozen ornaments in that box that came from them and my grandmother always put our name in the year on the bottom and a lot of these ornaments were made by my grandfather , who was very good at woodworking .

Speaker 2 10:20

So yeah , I mean , so , yeah , I do believe that you know . For those of you that you know might be reluctant to decorate that Christmas tree , decorate it . Go through those ornaments . There's stories in those ornaments .

Speaker 1 10:38

And you also have to think about it as keeping up with the tradition . Even though you lose someone that you love , it's easy to say you know what this person has passed . They're no longer with us . It's just too sad to continue the tradition without them , but that's not what they would want . They'd want you to continue to the tradition and remember them , and obviously Cynthia is going to keep decorating the tree . Maybe she'll do it with her children , her grandchildren , and then kind of what Joel was saying maybe they'll have special ornaments that remind them of those moments with those special people . And so it's important to keep those traditions alive and well .

Speaker 2 11:18

Our last story also keeps traditions alive and well , and it was submitted by Chris T . Chris writes . Each Thanksgiving , my mom would always prepare dinner when she passed . I decided to try cooking for my family . It was a terrible decision . I was completely overwhelmed .

Speaker 2 11:40

Preparing the turkey was proven to be more difficult than anticipated . I tried , recalling the countless times I had watched my mom move gracefully around the kitchen and expertly prepared each dish . Feeling frustrated , I closed my eyes and whispered a short prayer . Instantly , I felt a sense of peace . I felt as though invisible hands were guiding me , directing me through each task . Hours later , as the family gathered around the table , they were amazed . Every dish tasted just as it used to when mom made it . The turkey was perfectly roasted , the cranberry sauce had the right blend of sweet and tart , and the pumpkin pie was a dream . As we sat down to eat , I looked around the room , grateful for the family that surrounded me and the presence I had felt guiding me throughout the day . The empty chair at the head of the table was a reminder of our loss , but in our hearts and through the meal we shared , mom was very much with us .

Speaker 1 12:46

Chris is braver than me , because I cannot cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner . I am just not . I don't think I could handle the stress of it , but I applaud him for taking on that tradition into his own hands and continuing the memory of his mother .

Speaker 2 13:07

Absolutely .

Speaker 1 13:09

I remember last year during the holiday season , there was a Coca-Cola commercial and it had a similar vibe . There was a grandmother who had passed away , or you're watching this young man cooking and the grandmother's helping him , but at the end of the commercial you learned that she had passed away the year prior and that the family's eating and just recalling her memory , and I think it's a beautiful story . I liked it .

Commercial, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Conversation

Speaker 2 13:36

I don't remember that commercial page , you don't ? It was um .

Speaker 1 13:40

I have to look it up now . It was . It was really great .

Speaker 2 13:45

But it definitely what you described fits the scene that Chris painted so well for us .

Speaker 1 13:52

Yeah , Chris , I hope that you have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family this year and that maybe preparing the Thanksgiving dinner will be a little bit easier . Thank you so much for joining us , you guys . That is the end of the episode . If you have received a message from heaven and you would like to share it with us , you can email us at podcast at CLE C-E-M dot org , or you can send us a message on our social media . Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas and have a blessed holiday .