A Christmas Story

This past Saturday my family was celebrating Christmas all together. I had just bought a webcam, so I was excited about being able to be seen my family. My brother's fiancée, Karla, had also downloaded Skype (the greatest invention ever made!) and borrowed someone's webcam- I was going to be able to "be there" as they celebrated!!! One problem...my electricity! It doesn't like to be on very much, and there is pretty much no way to predict when it will be off and when it will come on.

As I previously told you, I am currently reading in Exodus. Well, that morning I was reading about God's provision: manna, quail, etc. He gave them just what they needed- no more and no less. Just enough. My heart began to turn to my own situation- oftentimes, my lack of trust in Him. I like to insulate myself with money, people, and many other things so I don't ever have to fall flat on my face. I love to pray, but most of the time I don't pray big prayers. What I mean by that is: miracle, God gets all the glory prayers! Those are hard, because it takes child-like trust and makes you so vulnerable. But how God longs for us to pray those prayers! To show Him big, majestic, and so beautiful to this world that needs Him! He longs to provide us just what we need, when we need it, no more, and no less. Dependence upon Him; such a beautiful thing! Well, Saturday morning, I decided to pray one of those prayers; to go out on a limb and trust God fully and completely.

Here was my prayer: "God, you know my heart's desire. You know I desperately want to be there with my family as they celebrate Christmas. But You also know what I need. I trust in Your provisions. I know it is humanly impossible, but I am asking for the electricity to go on at 8pm when they first are getting together. I also pray for it to stay on for a few hours, so we can celebrate together. I trust You fully; if this is what my heart needs, You will indeed provide that! I surrender my desire to control the situation or to worry about it to You.”

At one minute past eight o’clock my electricity turned on! The funny thing, I wasn’t even too shocked by that. He knew what I needed, when I needed it, and He got the glory out of the situation. If my story stopped there, it would still be amazing, but God kept going that night; making Himself so visible to me, my family, my roommates, and now everyone who reads this. My electricity stayed on for a few hours while they opened gifts, chatted with me, and showed me things up close (haha- Skype is amazing, did I already say that?). Then, all the sudden, the lights began to flicker and fade on and off. First off, that never happens. When the power goes off, it just switches off suddenly, without a warning. A few minutes later, the lights just faded out all throughout the house. The only thing remaining on was my little lamp next to my computer and my computer…with my internet! That lasted for about 20 minutes, and finally I called my sister over to see what had happened. I panned the camera across the pitch black house and then back to my well-lit area. We both just had to laugh at how utterly amazing God is. It eventually shut off completely, but not before I had a chance to tell them I loved them and said goodbye once more.

It is such a crazy story, but reality is that it shouldn’t be. God longs to do things like that all the time. We don’t ask, and we don’t believe He can and will do those sorts of things. But why don’t we believe? Is it because we lose control of things? Is it because we don’t truly, in our heart of hearts, know that He desires our best at all times? He isn’t trying to ruin our day, rain on our parade, or be a party-pooper. But I think most of us think that. If I surrender everything to God, He will take away the things that I truly want, and give me something terrible. Yes, He does prune us and mold us (Oh, how I know that as of late!), but it is for our good. After every thing that God has pruned and pried from my hands during the past months, I have to say that it was for my good. And not only was it for my good, it was something I prayed about earlier. God, I want to be more humble. Father, help me to be a better communicator. My Abba, how I long to be like you- full of grace, compassion, and love. Teach me, teach me! Rip away Christina, and replace it with more of You. I prayed those things, and He is answering them. He is faithful; maybe not in ways that I understand or even like. But His is faithful!

So, I hope my story touches your heart, and gives you a better picture of who it is that we love and serve. I pray He gives you faith, just the size of a mustard see, to believe He loves you and wants your best at all times. Will you surrender to His love and His plan? I sure hope I can do that more and more each day!

May God richly bless your next year: Happy New Year 2009!!!