Have you ever witnessed a child making their Christmas list in July? Just as a child anxiously awaits Christmas all year long, sometimes it seems we’re waiting all year for our Christmas, our something magical… our miracle.
Whether we are waiting for a financial breakthrough, for health and healing, for a family, for peace or for reconciliation, the longer we wait, the more we might start to doubt if our ‘Christmas’ is ever coming.
We experience pain and struggles as we impatiently anticipate our Christmas. And just when we think we have lost all hope, something happens… a miracle. Sometimes this miracle is not the change we have been anticipating, but instead it is a miracle simply in our own hearts.
As Dallas Willard once said,“Sometimes we get caught up in trying to glorify God by praising what He can do and we lose sight of the practical point of what He actually does do.” It’s easy to focus on the anxiety in the waiting of our desired miracle, that we’re often misled to miss the true miracle that God is working in our lives.
While going through an unexpected divorce, I prayed everyday for reconciliation of my family… for my miracle. By focusing on the outcome, I was living in an anxious ‘just in time’ state of mind everyday and I was losing joy and faith. After three very long years, God broke through my walls of hurt. He worked a miracle in my heart when I experienced His pure love and comfort amidst chaos. I had never thought I would reconcile that brokenness with gratitude and closeness to God. Not only did He give me gratitude, I found myself praising God for the unexpected. Nothing changed in my outside circumstances, yet His miracle happened when God freed my heart.
His word says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom the work that God does from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Has there been a time when you received God’s true unexpected miracle ‘just in time’ in your life? Have you been able to look back and appreciate the time of waiting?
I pray this Christmas you are able to open your heart to God’s mystery as He delivers an unexpected miracle… just in time. Allow God to free your anxieties and exchange those burdens with strength, love and faith in Him. Take a moment to cherish even the smallest magical victories, find beauty in the chaos, and experience renewed faith.
— Becka Montoya, Generation Ministries Staff
