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I don’t know about your kids, but mine had lousy timing, especially when I tried to accomplish anything.
Christ’s birth was ill-timed too. As I sat reflecting a couple nights ago, I wrote a “currently” post about the evening spent with my kids.
And I got to thinking about their ill-timing in my life through the years.
Currently
Listening: to my two middles serenade us from the family music room, home from college in Tennessee and Ohio for Christmas break.
The strains of “Oh, Shanendoah”, played on guitar and keyboard surround me like a warm, cozy afghan as I contentedly reflect on our evening together.
Pondering: our special Advent time tonight. Waiting for the whole family to return home to open our year-long “Thankful Jar”, we’re dividing up the answers to prayer and reading five per night!
Smiling: at some of those answers:
>Our son found a church family to call his own in Tennessee! This was an answer to an 18 month prayer.
>A daughter had a health scare resulting in an MRI of her brain. She received a clean bill of health!
>Our oldest and her little family, seeking God’s will, put their house up for sale. It sold within ten days.
>The Tiny Tornado is getting a sister in the spring!
>Our youngest traveled safely to Bermuda and back on a mission’s trip over the summer.
Thanking: God for tonight’s devotional from Mary’s Magnificat:
Sometimes we wonder why we aren’t happy, why we make sinful choices, why we feel distant from God.
Often it’s because we have small thoughts about God and magnified thoughts of ourselves, our wants, our rights, our accomplishments.
Mary, the one God chose to be the mother of His Son, could have easily allowed her thoughts of herself to become larger, even prideful.
But instead of magnifying herself, she magnified the Lord. ~Nancy Guthrie, Let Every Heart Prepare
Him Room
Praising: Our Great Savior for the worship that flowed freely from my grown children (ages 19, 21, and 24), in the discussion that followed.
Missing: The oldest child – the little mama, who this moment is putting her own son to bed. But she’s not far – just across town. We will be all together for dinner tomorrow night!
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Small thoughts of God
This night, my heart is full. My family is home, and the circle is again unbroken.
This mama is pondering a lot in her heart, just as Mary did on that night so long ago after the Shepherds paid their joyful visit.
Immanuel. God is with us.
He was surely here tonight in our family room.
But He was also here all those hard days with the kids tugging at my skirts, screaming for snacks, biting each other, and causing general mayhem.
I see that now. Because these children love God, and they learned it from someone.
And I humbly submit, that someone was me.
In all my faults, weaknesses, and outbursts, God was with me, waiting.
With grace, picking me back up off the floor and urging me forward, “don’t give up”.
I’m so glad I didn’t.
Don't you give up either, mama. Immanuel is with you too. Share on X
Kids do things at the most inopportune times, don’t they?
Vomiting during the night.
Poopie diapers just as you’re dashing out the door.
Ransacking the tree while you’re finishing up last-minute preparations for a Christmas gathering.
Christ came at an inopportune time
1)He came at night.
2)He came while his mother was on a long and tiring journey.
3)He came when there was not a room to be found, save a barn full of animals.
Isn’t that just like a kid? They have the lousiest timing ever.
Christ was a child.
And when He was an adult, He also welcomed children…who seemed to have lousy timing. You know – interrupting the important disciples and such.
“Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me.
God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” ~Matthew 19:15 The Message
Dark.
Journeying.
No room.
Seemingly haphazard, ill timing?
Not on God’s watch.
But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent His Son, born among us of a woman,
Born under the conditions of the law
So that He might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.
Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. ~Galatians 4:4-5, The Message
Traveling. At night. In the dark. No rooms. Seemingly ill-timed - Christ's birth. But God's perfect timing. Share on X
God is in charge of time.
God is in charge of you.
God is in charge of your child.
God doesn’t make mistakes.
This Christmas, let’s magnify our view of God. Let’s invite Him into our messy, ill-timed lives.
Because that’s what He wanted all along.
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. ~Luke 1:46
For He Who is mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His name. ~Luke 1:49
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Thanks, and may you experience Christ’s presence in the little things this season.
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Loved this one marm :)
Thanks, my girl. Love you!
Love it- you are such an inspiration and encouragement!
Ruthie, I so appreciate the encouragement you share. Love having the perspective from your experience.
Thank you, Abi, for your support! You are a wise mama, so that means a lot to me. Hang in there – in the blink of an eye, they’ll be moving out – and you’ll be standing there wondering what just happened! People used to tell me that too and I’d think, “Nah. That’s YEARS away.” And it is, but years are fast. You just don’t realize how fast they are until it’s over! :)