It's Christmas Time...

It's Christmas time...we love Christmas at our house. We love the celebration of Jesus' birth. We love the family time, the giving of gifts to friends and family. It's not feeling like Christmas time this year, though. We are struggling to find the Christmas Spirit. There are two little boys who are missing from our home. There are gifts ready for them under the tree. There are empty beds and empty rooms. There are closets quickly filling with little clothes. There are books waiting to be read. There are arms waiting to hold and secrets waiting to be told. Two little boys missing, it's making Christmas time a little sad in our house this year.

Then, at church this morning came the gentle reminder from Galatians 4:4-5 "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Our sons were born under the law, just as we were. They were born under a law that said they were useless and worthless and not worth keeping. Sound familiar? Thank God that when the time had fully come He sent his Son. At the beginning of this journey, we knew that we were being called to help make the sad things of this world come untrue for our boys, just as Christ has done and is doing for each of us. The law and the demands of the law have been met in Christ Jesus. We are free! Our freedom is what allows us to love our sons so much and so completely. Not to see flaws or imperfections, but to see the beauty that God sees.

This year God is giving our family the gifts of faith and trust. He is encouraging our hearts and renewing the belief that everything works together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. If this pain is a necessary step in the journey to our sons, we will take it, knowing that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion...

They are coming home, just not as soon as we'd like them to. But God has a plan for our lives and in the fullness of time, at exactly the moment of His choosing, our sons will come home. Not by accident or by chance or by coincidence, but by divine appointment and intervention and direction. Because He willed it to be so...they are coming HOME.

I think, I wrote this post more for my own heart than for anyone else, but I will publish it and pray that it encourages you. That no matter what the circumstances are in your life, God has a plan, an appointment with your circumstances. We don't get to set the time or move God's hand for Him, we just get to trust that Daddy's got this! The battle is already won and victory is ours, because Jesus finished it all on the cross.

Blessings,
Mandy