"christmas miracle"

With great anticipation I await my Christmas miracle. Problem is, I don't know what said Christmas miracle is. For weeks I've been asked... what is your Christmas miracle? Do not be afraid to ask. Be specific. Pray. Wait (ding, ding, ding)

Uh, OK. Well, I am too selfish to think of a Christmas miracle that is about someone else but I am not selfish enough to be able to think of one of my own. The days of December have ticked by, and now the 25th is almost come to a close and I haven't seen a miracle in sight. Do I know what I am looking for? No idea. Maybe on this cold night I should bundle up and take a walk outside under the stars, and they will guide me right to my future husband, or a million dollars, or a Taco Bell at least.

For the past few days my mom and I have joked about everything being a Christmas miracle. "No lines at Walgreen, Hello Christmas miracle!" "40 degrees in December in Wisconsin? Christmas miracle!" "Emma, you took the puppy out at 2:00 am for me? My Christmas miracle!"

Maybe I could say these are all miracles, but no, they are really not. I may be from Wisconsin but I am not that cheesy. Miracles might not be what we expect, but they are some sort of miraculous. 40 degree Christmas in Wisconsin might be a miracle, actually, but others who've been wishing for snow would disagree.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein

Ah, if only I could be so optimistic as Einstein was when he said such a thing. Going through life believing everything to be a miracle seems childish, seems naive.

Many things are miraculous, but believing that I can hand pick my miracle? Not so sure. Tis the season to write our lists, blur lines between need and want, and hope that we made it perfectly clear to our Aunt's what we really wanted for Christmas. Life isn't a Christmas list of things we want, of miracles that we pray for to come true.

Everything about Christmas is a miracle. Wise men searching for a baby for years, Shepherds following an unidentified object in the sky, a virgin woman pregnant with the King of Kings, an not-yet husband trusting that the bright voice in his bedroom was real. That God became an infant, to cry, and nurse, and be held at the breast of a mother. It's all so miraculous, it's all so absurd.

Who could have guessed? Who could have known? Who could have prayed for such miracles? No one could have, or even would have known to pray for such things.

I cannot fathom what my future may hold, and I would be silly to try. This Advent season has been a reminder to me that to live each day in simple obedience is more than enough for each day in itself. Anytime my mind stretches itself beyond the day I am either unhappy because I can not know my future, or unhappy because my present is not what that future might be.

Mary was nothing special, she was an unwed teenager. Her future, as far as she knew, included Joseph, a family, a home in the same neighborhood as her parents'.

Mary's Song: (Luke 1:46-55)

"And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors."

Mary foresaw, with insight and wisdom, that not only did God use someone low and weak to bring forth the king, but He was going to do it again, and again, and Him choosing her meant a shift in the Kingdom. A shift in the way all people thought, and it is still a counter cultural thought today. The weak are not thought powerful, the poor are not considered rich. Everything is upside down and backwards with God. I'll have to think about that everyday for the rest of my life before I get it, I think. Someday I will understand. Maybe when I'm at His feet, I'll know.

Christmas miracles are overrated, I say. But that's just me. Maybe it's cause I don't have one.