Everyday Miracles

Last night was "This Night" at LifeSong Church, an event for the ladies where we put together lovely tables, eat a nice meal and hear a speaker. The speaker for this particular event was a young lady who had been involved in a horrible car crash and made a miraculous recovery, and her main theme was how God was involved in all the details of that incident, and in fact He is in control of all the little details of our lives. It really made me pause and think about all the times that I marveled at some coincidence in my life and may have even acknowledged it as God's work, and then promptly forgot all about it. Someone has said, "Coincidence is God working miracles anonymously." Cheesy maybe, but true. I don't believe in fate, or karma, or whatever you may call it. God has His plans and He is most definitely out there working miracles in our lives every single day. Amy Grant sings about angels watching over us and how God keeps us safe in myriad ways that we will never know about. Here's a story that came to my mind while I was listening last night.

Back in January 2000, we were a family of three. Jon and I were on the way to getting pregnant and in fact, would get there about five months later. Dana was twelve years old and playing Upward basketball. We were driving a nice Ford Windstar van that we loved, although we had just replaced the transmission to the tune of $1800. Dana particularly loved that the van had backseat controls. In other words, when she sat in the second row, behind the driver, she had her own control panel for the radio, heat/air, etc. And that's where she usually sat: right behind the driver's seat. Because there were only three of us, we usually went everywhere together, including sports practices. On one January practice night, I had been sick with a stomach bug and sent Jon and Dana on without me. I laid around the house feeling awful for about an hour and then the phone rang. It was Jon and all he said was, "We've been in an accident. I have to cal 911. We're in front of the church." I had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drove to the scene of the accident. I will never forget topping the hill on Kingston Pike to see flashing lights, police cars, fire trucks and ambulances blocking the road. When I was finally able to get to the van, I found Dana and Jon standing outside it. The van was nearly folded in half. Jon later told me that when he turned left onto the road, a small black car with one headlight came speeding down the hill and t-boned them. The point of impact was just behind the driver's seat, where Dana sat. Except for THAT night. Because I stayed at home, Dana sat up front where she was safely behind an airbag when the accident occurred. The van was totalled but Jon and Dana walked away.

New Year's What?

I used to make New Year's resolutions. A few years ago I made one last resolution and that was to STOP making New Year's resolutions. It's a set-up for failure, in my opinion. Setting goals is all well and good, but you can do that at any time. Why not Easter resolutions, or Labor Day resolutions? I get that the new year is a good marker and a new beginning, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Personally I'd rather make any so-called resolutions simple, somewhat vague and do-able. There's a greater chance for success that way.

I've been reflecting on what I did right in 2008 (a good number of things) and what I can improve on in 2009 (lots more things). I decided to try to improve certain aspects of my spiritual life this year so I made a list to remind me to focus. It's NOT a list of resolutions, mind you - just some phrases to keep me headed in the right direction. And since I'm working on my spiritual health you won't see any comments about weight or exercise on my list. Despite what I said in the first paragraph, I can be a bit of an over-achiever sometimes, therefore... my short little list of reminders (DON'T call them resolutions!) is in rhyme. Don't laugh. I worked hard on this! And remember that these are mostly referring to my relationship with God, although some could also apply to my other relationships too.

More time, less hurry;
More trust, less worry.

More listen, less talk;
More obey, less balk.

More faith, less see;
More of Him, less of me.

I reserve the right to add to this list as I think of new ones. Reminders, that is. Not resolutions.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

That's a good title for this blog, but not my most favorite of Christmas songs. That would probably be "Mary Did You Know". It's most likely because I'm a mother that I relate to that song so well. Remembering my girls when they were infants and imagining myself in Mary's shoes that night is just overwhelming. Along with all the joy that comes with a new baby there must have been such awe and wonder at the specialness of *this* baby. "When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God." Wow!

I also like a song called "Strange Way to Save the World" for much the same reason. Here's Joseph, his fiance gets pregnant and it's NOT his, and he chooses to stand by her. All the townspeople whisper and point whenever he walks by. How does it feel to be Joseph? He knows what this baby means to the world and to him personally. What a responsibility - to raise the son of God; to train Him up in the way He should go.

And then there's "We Are the Reason" that talks about gifts and how the greatest gift of all was born on Christmas. As much as the world seems to want to cut God out of everything else, at Christmas time they seem to come back to Him in some small way. For all the complaining I hear about Santa and Xmas taking over, I just don't see it overshadowing the birth of Christ. Am I blind? Or maybe I'm just focusing on the good things. Either way, I think I'll just keep my rose-colored glasses on for now.

And I forgot to light the Advent candle last night.

Advent, Part 1

For years I have attempted to incorporate the celebration of Advent into our family's Christmas. Last year I even went so far as to buy the candles (3 purple, 1 rose and 1 white) and set them up on the dining room table. We just never lit them. I remember thinking about it on Sunday nights and kicking myself for forgetting. When I was a kid, Christmas meant visiting Santa to issue my list of "wants," dinner at my Grandma's on Christmas Eve and an flurry of present opening on Christmas morning. I intend for it to mean so much more to my own children, even though I'm sure that right now they would say that their favorite part of Christmas is the presents. I still haven't followed through on my yearly resolution to buy them less presents but that doesn't keep me from vowing it again this year.

So this year I finally got my Advent act together. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, so I set up the candles, found a guide for the devotional readings and called the whole herd together. It took some doing to get them all collected in the dining room but I wasn't taking "No" for an answer! I even assigned Bible readings to the two 7 year olds. The big kids all wanted to be the one to light the candle (sorry, that's a grown-up job) and the little ones just wanted to pull them off the table. We talked about Hope (the first candle is for Hope or Prophecy, and I thought Prophecy might be a little too advanced a concept for them). We read in John about how Jesus is the light of the world, and we turned out the lights before we lit the candle as sort of a simple illustration. The whole thing lasted maybe 5 minutes. I don't know if it meant anything to anyone else, but I enjoyed it. I love the whole idea of preparing your heart and mind for Christmas by lighting the candles and reading about Christ's coming. I'm sure that as my kids grow older I can involve them more and more. Maybe next week we'll even sing a Christmas carol that goes along with the week's theme.

I'm also thinking about doing a Jesse tree this year, but I'm going to have to decide quickly since today is the first of December. A Jesse tree is a plain little twig tree that you use to hang ornaments that illustrate certain Bible truths that pertain to Christ and Christmas. I'm searching for some printables that the kids can just color in and cut out. That seems like a good way to combine crafts with spiritual training, doesn't it? I'm always looking for ways to multi-task. :-)