Lost In the Prairies.....Found by God

This December has been one of many struggles for my family - depression, slipped disk, GSI, loss of assistance, etc...  It's getting to the point where even my friends are asking how much more can we take.   

It doesn't only feel like we are going through this either.  You only have to watch to news to see that things aren't right.  That people are struggling.  That hurt is abound.  That evil is attacking us.   After the shootings at Sandy Hook School, a friend questioned if this wasn't God's plan.  I don't believe it was.  God has a plan for each and every one of us.  Plans to prosper not to harm.  Plans with a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)  All of this isn't in God's plan.  God doesn't want us to hurt or be in pain.  All this is about darkness.

Christmas is about light.  We light a candle each week to represent - hope, love, joy, and peace.   These little flames represent the light that Christ brought to our world with His birth.  It's not about defeat or darkness.  But that's what the enemy wants us to believe.  He wants us to focus on despair and pain.  He wants us to focus on stress and crowds.  He wants us to focus on consumption and overindulgence.  He wants us to focus on Elf on the Shelf and not the missing baby in the Nativity Scene.  The enemy wants us to think that he's won.  

In the world we live in it's easy to fall into his trap.  Children killed.  Old hostilities ignited.  Politics over shadowing reconciliation.  Debt looming.  Countries close to bankruptcy.  People losing jobs.  I could go on.  It's to the point where I don't want to watch the news anymore.  There doesn't appear to be anything good in the world, if you believe the news makers.

But Love is alive in a breath.  A teacher sacrificing herself for her students.  Hope is alive in a simple random act of kindness of sharing a free coffee with the car behind you.  Peace is reflected in people gathering to help those who need help by providing food and necessities no matter their background or faith.  Joy is reflected in the eyes and giggle of child in the arms of a family member as they celebrate Jesus' birth.  The enemy hasn't won.  Christ's gift is still here.  

Earlier this year I read Ann Voskamp's A Thousand Gifts.   This book made me think of the little things instead of the big.  We all want to look for God in the larger things, but He is just as strong in the small.  Remember the mustard seed.  If we want to move the mountain we need to see him in the speck of dust around us.  We are looking for Him in a large light, but He's there in the lowly flame of a small candle.  We need to trust that He is there.  Because He is.

We are all facing the darkness instead of focusing on the light.  We have wandered and are now lost.  We need only to turn around and see the child lying in the manger to know who won and continues to fight on our behalf.  We need to focus on the light of the world who came out of darkness.

"Light of the World