Miracle

"As long as you are breathing, He is always your miraculous answer."

Good morning.  I'm seeing and hearing a lot of 'talk' by friends who are too busy with preparations or too burdened with hurts to fully enjoy Christmas as they want to deep within.

My heart hurts when I watch friends and even strangers go through difficult times.  None of us are immune, are we?  It just may or may not be our turn.

So in light of that, I want to share some happy thoughts with you.  Miraculous ones today in hopes to cheer you the way they have cheered me.

Considering Advent - the season for waiting and watching for our Messiah to come -

"He will prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord....You don't have to work for the coming of the Lord - you don't have to work for Christmas.  The miracle is always that God is gracious.  You don't have to earn Christmas, you don't have to perform Christmas, you don't have to make Christmas.  You can rest in Christ.  You can wait with Christ.  You can breathe easy in Christ.  Open your heart to the miracle of grace.  He will prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord."

All you have to do is come as you are.  Isn't that good news?  Just come as you are.  Right now - with toddlers hanging on your legs, flour all over your hands, bills stacked on the desk, family drama on the horizon - just come.

Like Zechariah the priest awaiting his time to serve in the temple, "Your name has been drawn.  Come to Him just as you are.  Give up trying to be self-made: this is your gift to Him - and His gift to you.  Simply come. The miracle of Christmas is that you get more than proof of God's existence.  You get the experience of His presence."

Are you, like me, looking for a miracle this Christmas, my friend.  Good news - "You always get your Christmas miracle. You get God with you.

God gives God.  He withholds no good thing from you.

And the good things in life are not so much health, but holiness; not so much riches in this world, but relationship with God; not so much our plans, but His presence - and He withholds no good thing from us because the greatest things aren't ever things.

He doesn't withhold Jesus from you.  Christ is all your good, and He is all yours, and this is always your miracle.

No matter the barrenness you feel, you can always have as much of Jesus as you want."

This sacred echo keeps coming back to me over and over this Advent season....If He gave me His only Son to save me, will He not give everything I need? (Rom 8:32)

What do you need from Him today?  Ask for it.  Expect the miracle.  Come as you are.  Jesus is the miracle and you can have as much of Him as you want.

We get God with us.  So good.

This is why I love Christmas.  This concentrated period of time to remember, reflect and ponder that God, knowing our greatest need, sent His Son to meet that need and invites us to receive it.  To receive this new life, eternal life, the only life worth living.  The one that gives hope that eclipses this world's pain and trouble - because He is coming again.  And it will be so worth it.

*All quotes from The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp