SEASONS - PONDERING THE GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBLES FOR CHRISTMAS 2014

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

So have you found the wonder of Christmas this year?  

Have you found your "glorious impossible" yet?  

God always does that you know.  He has a way of putting His glory into your impossible and making miracles.

  They seem to happen most often at Christmas time, so every year during the Christmas season I look for the glorious impossibles!  

I've never been disappointed.  He always shows me something.  One year it was a yard full of red birds.  One year it was a family I gained overnight.  One year it was the secret of how to make Christmas out of nothing at all.  God is always making something out of nothing and if you believe in the power of His love, you can too.  It is wonderful.

So look for the glorious impossible until you find it.

 

The glorious impossibles will teach you things you will never forget.  Christmas is such a teachable time.  There is always something new that God is teaching us at Christmas time.  

 What has God shown you this year? 

The lessons revealing the glorious impossible seem to come when you least expect them; and they always show up in the most unusual times and places.

  

  This year has been the year for me to think about new beginnings.  I have been blessed with my first two grand children.  One was born to my daughter, a tiny, perfect, amazing little girl.  The other entered the family through my daughter marrying his Dad, a charming, brilliant little six year old boy with a gift for seeing the wonder of everyday things.  What joy they have brought to me this year!  The blessings from them being a part of the family have been astounding.   So many wonderful new beginnings!

The quiet kind of joy I learned last year has turned into a loud belly laughing kind of joy this year.  Not much about childhood is quiet and silent.  I’ve soaked up the notes of the sounds of their voices singing children’s songs and my heart has sung along.  Once again God has shown me the experience that only the heart of a child can bring to Christmas.  There has been so much wonder!  The cares of the world have been safely tucked away, not to interfere with this magical time of childhood when it is perfectly okay to be carefree and without a bit of worry or stress.  This has given me reason to think it is never necessary. 

Why can’t every day be filled with the wonder of a child at Christmastime?

There is no good reason not to have this.  We must make the conscious effort in the coming year to put aside our worries and stress and trust our Heavenly Father to take care of all our needs, just as a child trusts his parents at Christmastime for all the love and joy and wonder that they will need to last into the coming year.

 As I ponder the glorious impossible of this year, many things come to mind: 

Glorious Impossible of 2014 - One – Grown children never grow up completely!  

They are always coming back home and looking for that sense of peace and tranquility of childhood.  They are constantly sharing the child in them with their own children.  This is so beautiful!  It has been so nice to have all of the family together, happy and healthy and full of anticipation this year, sharing, loving, caring for one another.  This is a blessing I could never ever take for granted. 

Glorious Impossible Blessing of 2014 - Two:  The simplest things are usually the most important things!  

An infant LOVES first learning how to tear paper and the paper becomes more important to them than the gift inside the paper.  This is so like our own lives.  We are on a journey and I think it is in the traveling more than the arriving that we learn so much from.   

God teaches us a little here and little there, just as an infant tears the paper from her first Christmas presents, slowly and with awe that there is something hiding behind the paper, but the little child is so distracted by the pretty colors of the paper.  Finally after playing with the paper for a long time and ignoring the gift as if it wasn’t even there, the amazing fact dawns on them that there was something wonderful  inside!  They light up with a smile and they begin to examine the great gift that they had not even seen or noticed at first! 

Then their face glows with sheer joy when they realize this new wonderful gift is just for them.  It is all their own; an unexpected surprise that they had not anticipated and that gift becomes the most wonderful thing of all in their Christmas morning!  Isn’t this just like all of us as we find Jesus in the midst of the wrappings of the world.  It takes awhile for us to see, then suddenly our eyes are opened to the fact that Messiah is amidst all the wrappings and colors  and He is waiting there just for us; the greatest gift ever!

I am so thankful to have discovered this glorious impossible all over again this year simply by looking at my eight month old grand-daughter open her presents under the tree.

Glorious Impossible for 2014 - Three:  Presence is so much more important than presents!

I have pondered this as I anxiously awaited the arrival of the two grown children who had to work late.  We would not be complete for Christmas without them!  How wonderful it was to see their smiles inside the doorway. 

How good it was to see the son who always has trouble making it on time to show up appropriately this year with a look of joy on his face. 

How sweet for those who had to drive for miles in the pouring rain from another state to arrive safely and with warm greetings.

How wonderful to have my ageing parents still be able to make the journey to our home and for the one who has suffered illness to feel good for a whole day and to even be able to eat a plate full of Christmas dinner!

 These are blessings I never take for granted any more.  How long will it stay this way?  Life is like a deep breath and it is gone.   Time is precious and minutes are like gold.  We are in a perfect time of life right in this moment in this Christmas, and I just want to cherish it all forever.  My heart is so very grateful to God for this.  It is an unspeakable joy, a beautiful glorious impossible!

Glorious Impossible  for 2014 - Four: There is nothing like the gift of laughter! 

I hear it all through the rooms of our house that is bursting its seams with our ever growing family.  This gift that was passed down from Sarah and Abraham through Isaac and on until it became perfect through Christ Our Messiah is one of the most miraculous gifts of all!

 The sound of laughter; there is nothing like it.  People who love each other who are at peace with one another enough to relax and laugh together are very special people.  They have discovered something very, very important.  Each syllable of sound floats like a melody in my ears as I cook and prepare the feast.  Our house, like the tents of Abraham, was ringing out with laughter this year.  I have come to know what that means:  more blessings are on the way! 

For this moment in time I could not be more content than to stand in the middle of my kitchen floor and smile silently to myself as I hear them all laughing in the other room.  God has been so good.  I hear the children shrieking with laughter at one another and they fall on the floor with giggles.  This is music to a happy grandmother’s ears.

I watch my Dad in his eighties laugh at my grandson’s observations and love the look on his face. 

I watch my husband and our grown children chase a huge beach ball that Santa brought the grandson in the yard with him, everyone’s face is lit up with sheer genuine happiness and laughter. 

It is a priceless gift from God and I am humbled with gratitude.

I am thankful that God is teaching all of us how to be happy at all times and in every circumstance.  Our eyes have been opened enough in this joyful time to see and recognize how blessed we are to be all together on planet earth going through our journeys to heaven together, sharing our moments of happiness and joy on the way.  It has been so obvious this Christmas that we have learned how to do this and I think this trait will only get better as each year passes by.  It is a priceless gift from God.

 I treasure these things in my heart.



 Every year I look for God’s glory in the impossible and I call it the “glorious impossible” when I see it.  

These things are this year’s most precious glorious impossibles for me.

This year – I have learned the joy that comes from a family well loved.  I have felt the warmth and peace and security that it brings and know that Christ is the cause that holds it all together and the One in the midst of each ringing note of sound that rings out with joy. 

Jesus is the greatest gift of all. 

He has filled our home and hearts with glorious impossibles yet another year!

May you find your “glorious impossible”  too.  To know Christ and to know His love throughout all eternity will be the greatest glorious impossible any of us can ever share.  To know His laughter and His peace and His joy is amazing.