Tuesday, December 10, 2024
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, just a little bit, 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 and sometimes the “magic” of this season helps to distract us from the struggles of life. Sometimes we miss the wonder, 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 have an idea and a picture of the miracles we want and expect 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 should be His plan too. 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 people were not looking for a king to be born in a stable. They were expecting a palace, and the Magi brought gifts fit for royalty. They did find royalty, just in an unsuspecting place and form. If they had only looked for 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.
