(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.
