Christmas Eve Reflections...pt 2
Things that didn’t make it on the last post’s Christmas Eve list:
Grown child suddenly overwhelmed by anxiety-ridden coughing attack ✔️
Heavy doses of prayer ✔️
Not everything is always perfect. Tonight as we wrapped up our festivities, one my my precious children suddenly began coughing uncontrollably. The coughing led to anxiety at not knowing what was wrong, which led to more coughing...you get the idea. This is not how we planned to end our night. As I calmed her, brought her anything I could think of to ease her pain and discomfort and prayed fervently over her, I was struck by a feeling of helplessness.
Her coughs subsided. Then I sat down and wrote a beautiful blog post about Christmas Eve and what a wonderful night we had had.
In all honesty, I meant every word of my previous post. Tonight was special for our family, and I needed to write about that. But I could not leave it at that. I needed to write this part too. I need to remember that life is full of joys and God is there. But I also need to remember that life is full of sorrows and uncertainty...and God is there too!
Friends, don’t be fooled by the social media posts and blogs where your friends show how together they are. Don’t be fooled by your own past posts where you tried to convince yourself and the world that everything was perfect. We are all human. We live in a broken world regardless of how hard we try to fix it.
Nothing is perfect, and God is still there!
I don’t have it all together.
You don’t have it all together.
She doesn’t have it all together.
And God is still there!
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”
Psalms 139:1-18 NIV
Grown child suddenly overwhelmed by anxiety-ridden coughing attack ✔️
Heavy doses of prayer ✔️
Not everything is always perfect. Tonight as we wrapped up our festivities, one my my precious children suddenly began coughing uncontrollably. The coughing led to anxiety at not knowing what was wrong, which led to more coughing...you get the idea. This is not how we planned to end our night. As I calmed her, brought her anything I could think of to ease her pain and discomfort and prayed fervently over her, I was struck by a feeling of helplessness.
Her coughs subsided. Then I sat down and wrote a beautiful blog post about Christmas Eve and what a wonderful night we had had.
In all honesty, I meant every word of my previous post. Tonight was special for our family, and I needed to write about that. But I could not leave it at that. I needed to write this part too. I need to remember that life is full of joys and God is there. But I also need to remember that life is full of sorrows and uncertainty...and God is there too!
Friends, don’t be fooled by the social media posts and blogs where your friends show how together they are. Don’t be fooled by your own past posts where you tried to convince yourself and the world that everything was perfect. We are all human. We live in a broken world regardless of how hard we try to fix it.
Nothing is perfect, and God is still there!
I don’t have it all together.
You don’t have it all together.
She doesn’t have it all together.
And God is still there!
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”
Psalms 139:1-18 NIV
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