December 11 2018

Miracles in the Most Unusual Places

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. Luke 2:11

When the angels showed up in the shepherd’s field, they announced the greatest and most impactful miracle of all times.  
The Saviour, Christ, had come to earth, as a newborn baby.  
We often look for miracles in “obvious” places.  
We characterize them as big, flashy and only appearing in important places, circumstances or to important people. 
However, in reading the Christmas story, we see that this most important and amazing miracle happened in an obscure place to obscure people and in a most unusual way. 
The Saviour of the world came as a baby; a helpless, innocent, baby.  
Furthermore, that baby appeared, not in a palace, or to a royal family, but to a simple family, in a stable, making His bed in a manager of straw. 
How unusual.  
How unorthodox.  
How unexpected.  
Real miracles show up in the most unusual places in the most unusual ways.  
We need to train our spiritual eyes and ears to be in tune to the working of the Lord in our lives and in the lives around us.  
Open up those eyes and began to see the multitude of miracles surrounding you today, in the most unusual places.

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December 10 2018

Light and Hope

The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2
Isaiah prophesied about the birth of Jesus; he talked about the light being introduced into the darkness.  
Have you ever been in the dark looking for a light? 
The dark can be very dark with little ability to see very far. 
Once the light appears, although, it still may be dark and your vision is still somewhat obscured, you have great hope for what you are able to see and what it points to. 
Light brings hope.  
And THE Light of Jesus brought great hope into a dark world.  
Our world appears to be getting darker every day with so much fear and confusion and uncertainty.  Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the hope of the Light which came into the world in the form of a baby. 
What dark place in your life requires light today?  
What fearful or uncertain place requires hope?  
Christmas is coming, but Jesus is already here.  
He is in the midst of that situation already; you just need to be open and invited Him in. 
Look for the Light today, the real light, that brings hope into even the darkest situations.  
And invite Him in!

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December 9 2018

Living and Dying – Love and Hope

There was a collective catch of our breath
Last evening
Even before the call came.
We felt it in our spirit –
A knowing that you had moved
from this life into the next.
A last breath on your end
as you moved into eternity
reunited with all of ours who went on before
and a first breath on our end
into the reality
that you had moved on.

The end of a lifetime
wrapped in the hope of eternity.

So privileged to have held your hand just last week as,
even in those last days,
you passed on words of love, encouragement
and wisdom for my remaining days.

Our grief is balanced
by the joy in Heaven of your homecoming
and the joy of being reunited with our loved ones.
Even now I believe you are sitting around a beautiful kitchen table
beating someone at crib
or working on the most magnificent jigsaw puzzle
you have ever seen
or telling wonderful stories to all the rest.

You are gone but never forgotten
Living on in the love and wisdom
you passed on to each one.

In the days ahead I will
find comfort in the memory of those beautiful eyes
that gazed at me with such a pure love
just last week as we said our final goodbyes.
And those giant but gentle hands that held me close and wiped
away my tears.

Rest easy my dearest Papa.
I couldn’t be happier with the moments, days and years
we had together.

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
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