Devotion 359 - Glory

I told God umpteen times that our family was perfect just the way it was.  I could not imagine some five years ago that adding to our family was right or good, and certainly not holy. But He knew.

He knew that after 3 children, I had more lessons to learn and more love to give and to get.  And He placed in us this unrelenting desire for more of Him in a little girl.

And He allowed us to find her.

One day I will tell her.  I will tell her about the first few minutes of seeing her picture and the uncanny questioning that fired off in my head.

She didn’t look like I expected.  Somewhere in the corner of my head I thought it would be like our first daughter.  The one that floated into my soul and whose picture matched exactly to the snapshot the Holy Spirit had given me.

This one was different.

No snapshot.

 My husband literally ran in my office and shouted, the file is ready, “they have found her.”

And we sat and stared.

I wasn’t sure.  I wasn’t sure about her, her special need, anything. But somewhere that corner of my soul screamed a silent Yes. God knew that three children were not enough to bring me the humbling experiences of four.  He knew that I had to learn to stop looking at what wasn’t and focus on what was.

This Christmas, I need to remember not what Isn't but what IS.

I wax poetic at the images of snowy scenes, candlelit dinners, and glorious trees.  

But Christmas is none of these.

Whether in plenty or in want.

Whether in the company of family or all alone.

Whether surrounded by joy or sorrow.

Christmas is and always will be as Luke and Linus described,

You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

It is about finding.  

Finding peace, finding joy, finding Him. 

It is extending beyond expectations to the anticipation of His presence, if not around your tree, simply and beautifully in your heart.

Christmas is finding Christ.  

Holding on to His promises and to His presence.

It is taking the wonder in a child’s eyes and owning it in our hearts.

It is Wonderful.  Not the tinsel and trinkets, it is treasuring that which we already have and submitting all of what we want so that He can create in us what we need to be.

Christmas is about humbling ourselves as He humbled himself such that we might know glory right here.  It is no farther than the breath of prayer and the exhale of forgiveness.  

Embrace His glory, and in that tenderness feel the warmth of Christmas.

He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.  Deut 32:4