believing in miracles

you know there are times when you can pray so desperately for something and believe with out a doubt that God will grant your request. sometimes he does come through exactly the way you asked. and sometimes he comes through in an entirely different way. over the past year i've believed in a lot of miracles that God has sometimes granted the way i requested and sometimes in a completely different way. sometimes i was overjoyed with the outcome and sometimes i was so angry why it seemed like God didn't come through the way i asked him too.

i know for many this has been another difficult year. it's been unpredictable, overwhelming, messy, hard, and at times ever so silent. lately i've been wondering if that is exactly how the world felt the year that Christ was born. the world was in desperate need of a miracle. of a Savior. of a Redeemer. and we know that there are many times before in the Bible where people believed with out an ounce of doubt that the time had come for Christ to come, it wasn't. God knew just the right moment. i've come to know that God is rarely early but never late. now, i can't even imagine what it was like for mary and joseph. but i image that their lives where unpredictable, overwhelming, messy, hard, and at times ever so silent. but in all that messiness, unpredictability, and silence Christ came. it wasn't the most audacious welcoming. a party wasn't thrown. he didn't come saying "here I am!" he came amongst everything that was already happening. he joined in. he moved. he was the constant in the unpredictability, the calm amongst the overwhelming, the purity amongst the messy, the freedom through the hardship, and the voice in the midst of the silence. he was. he is. and he is yet to come.

this christmas is nothing like i expected. i thought by now we would surely have the pitter patter of little feet running through our house. i thought i would still have a job. i thought i had it all planned out. but of course this year has been unpredictable, overwhelming, messy, hard and at times every so silent. now, i don't know what happens next. i don't know if anything will change in the coming months. but i'm continuing to believe with out an once of doubt that Christ is joining me. he is moving. he is amongst everything that already is.

i pray this christmas that no matter where you are or where you thought you would be that when you are so desperate for a miracle. know that one is already there. believe it. receive it.