(by Lara Cook)
I pray that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling,
what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is
the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in
accordance with the working of the strength of His might. Ephesians 1:18
It is that magical time of year when we walk around like little children
wide eyed and staring at all the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations. This
is the time of the year we believe in miracles, such as flying reindeer and
Santa right? That is why they call it “the most wonderful time of the year”. But, the reality is that life is hard even at
Christmas. There is so much pain and
suffering and many times just the mere effort of existing day to day seems
impossible. Sometimes the “magic” of
this season helps to distract us from the struggles of life. But sometimes we don’t even see the
wonder. We are walking around, bleary
eyed, going from party to party and wishing the season over.
We can spend our whole life waiting for a miracle and miss the magic
happening right before our eyes. We may have
an idea and a picture of the miracles we want God to perform in our lives. The
problem is we don’t have God’s
vision. We want God to make things
happen the way we want them to happen
and we can talk ourselves into believing that this is His plan. We stand staring and waiting for the heralding
of this great event of change in our lives that we are expecting, and believe
we deserve. This is our definition of a miracle.
The truth is that when you are not looking or trying to make one happen,
you may find a miracle. Right where you never thought of looking you may find
the hand of God. We hear people say, “I
can’t believe it! It’s a miracle!” That is so often how it works! Just when you
stop believing, God meets you with a miracle. Miracles happen every day in the most
unsuspecting places. The Wise Men were not looking for a king to be born in a
stable. They were expecting a palace and
they brought gifts fit for royalty. They did find royalty, just in an
unsuspecting place and form. If they had waited until they found the miracle
they had envisioned, they would have missed the whole thing!
Miracles come in all kinds of packages. This Christmas, and every other
day of the year, open your heart to the small miracles all around you. Don’t miss the most important things because
you are expecting something different.
Scripture to Claim:
He determines the number of the stars; he gives
to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his
understanding is beyond measure. Psalm
147:4-5 ESV 