“I need a Christmas miracle!” he said emphatically. It was very obvious as our conversation continued that the man felt completely desperate and without options.
The concept of miracles plays an interesting role in our world. There are those of us who believe there is no such thing as a miracle. An illusion that people create out of desire or an otherwise unexplainable outcome.
Others of us are skeptical, as having never experienced what we consider a miracle. Yet, we don’t want to be completely closed off to the possibility.
And then there are those of us who either believe we have experienced a miracle or at least that such a thing could take place.
THE “Christmas miracle” is “Immanuel,” “God with us.” The incarnational act of, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John1:14) in a unique and profound way through the birth of Jesus Christ. Manifesting the transformative power of God’s love and deep desire to be in relationship with us.
It is as theologian Henri Nouwen writes, “The birth of Christ is the love of God made visible, not a distant, abstract love, but a tangible, touchable love, revealed in the frailty of a newborn child. This is the love that redeems, restores, and transforms.”
Friend, colleague, mentor Claude Payne years ago shared with me the life changing perspective of living life through the lens of miraculous expectations. It echoes one of my favorite quotes attributed to Albert Einstein, “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”
When we fully embrace the Christmas miracle that God is with us it is much easier to live with miraculous expectations that miracles are all around us.
“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.” – Phillips Brooks
BP