A Christmas Miracle?

So life has changed quite a bit over the past year, though this is not the post to get into all that—wait til Saturday night. One thing I will say right now is that this was the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family. I was dreading it with everything in me for most of the past month, even though it never really came out vocally. Christmas is my favorite holiday: the lights, the songs, the REASON, my mother’s cookies, giving gifts and seeing their reactions when they open them. For these reasons, especially the last two, I did not want to be alone. How baseless my worries were.

It all started well when I went to a Christmas Eve service in Springfield, MO at a very gospel centered church. One thing the pastor mentioned that stuck with me—that I definitely needed to hear—was that we are too often guilty of focusing on how others can bless us, but we really should think about how we can be a blessing for others. Basically, that is the true story of Christmas (see Philippians 2:5-8). That instantly helped to start pulling my eyes back to where they needed to be in this Christmas season.

After the Christmas Eve service, I drove back home—to my half-moved into/unpacked house—and decided to start a Christmas tradition of my own. This year was the prep for future years, so I wrote down all the verse references I could think of that had anything to do with the coming of Jesus. I came up with a list of about seventeen passages—some long, some a single verse. In the midst of this, I FaceTime’d with my family back in California and talked about Christmassy things. Afterwards, I opened the gifts that they had mailed me, and then I watched It’s A Wonderful Life, which if you have never seen you need to see as soon as possible. (Something I noticed this time around was the fact that the whole story is based around the fact that intercessory prayers are heard and answered, which further convinced me I need to pray more.)

After that, I went to bed and woke up Christmas morning in time to get dressed for work. Looking ahead to Christmas, this was the thing I dreaded the most, even more so than being alone. However, I went to work and prayed on the way that I would have a good attitude and be a hard worker. It was the best work day of my life. Almost every customer that came in thanked me for being there so that they could get their prescription filled despite the fact that it was Christmas. They wanted to be in there just as much as I did—meaning not at all—because who wants to be sick on Christmas and have to go to the hospital? And then, to just add to the goodness of the day, one gentleman who I helped with prescriptions had to get a jumpstart for his car afterwards, and I was the only one in the store with jumper cables. I was yet again reminded that I am right where God wants me to be.

Holding onto this positive attitude is the struggle of my life right now, but God is faithful and I can trust Him. Please pray for me.

Soli Deo Gloria

Hopefully, my next Galatians post will be published tomorrow. God bless!