The Coming One Is Here

Can I just share a few things on my heart today?
Advent.
Our God coming into our mess to walk and hurt with us.  To show us His heart.  To rescue us.
This season.  Anticipation of His coming.
How many of us rush through this time with little regard for the hope it holds, never taking time to rest, to wonder, to breathe, to know Him?

Do you have a way to stop and draw close to Him as you celebrate the waiting for His coming?  I'm reading The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp.  It's a brand new book for Advent from the author of 1,000 Gifts, which, by the way, is a totally awesome book....if you haven't heard of it, I highly recommend it as a read for the next year!  This new book helps to take the message of 1,000 Gifts deeper.  Into the very heart of the Giver who became the Gift.  It features a short reading for each day in December....like a breath of fresh air.

It starts with God's intention from the beginning of Creation to come and rescue His wandering children.  As we move through the unfolding history in the Bible, we find this promise woven throughout all of it....that out of the stump, out of the dead, out of the smoldering ashes....there will come a shoot of new life.  A Savior.  A Redeemer.  A Child.  God Himself with us.  We watch as He unfolds this plan through promises, prophecies made and fulfilled....shadows of a greater coming....through generations of those He had chosen to reveal Himself to the whole world.

I just read about Abraham.  How God told him, "I will bless you and make you a blessing."

"Only when you first unwrap the gifts of blessings to you can you be wrapped up as a gift of blessing to others.  Only when you are overwhelmed with the goodness of God can you overflow with the goodness of God to others.  And that is the blessing God graced Abram with, the blessing He graces you with this Advent, the gift that makes you a gift.  The greatest gift God graces a soul with is His own presence."
from the Greatest Gift

These past few weeks, God has found me stressing over things He told me not to worry about.  Desperately needing rest.  Questioning His trustworthiness.  Thirsting.  Drinking from broken cisterns because I'm struggling to trust His heart for me.  All the time knowing He has so much more....more of Himself to give me.  More of His presence to bless the world through me.  But I can not pour out when I believe I am empty.

Still He pursues.  And He calls softly, gently to my soul.  Tells me to just breathe.  Invites me to fall into His arms.  And He loves my heart back to the center of the round pen.

So today, in this season of waiting....lingering between the feast of giving thanks and the coming of Immanuel...I stop to count the gifts, the blessings, the graces I can see in the light of His presence.

Grace....

A delay in Thanksgiving travel due to vehicle problems.  The forced necessity of taking two vehicles instead of one and the extra expense....that saved us from getting stranded on the highway with a van that wouldn't start or worse problems.

The shattered dreams of lesser desires that drive us to the Ultimate Dream we have always wanted but without knowing....to God giving Himself to us.

The pain of seeing people I love walk through messes, teaching me that God is blessing us by coming into our mess and suffering with us and carrying us through.

When God breaks through the clouds of my empty pursuits and the pain of distancing myself from Him....to tell me that He has given me a new heart after Him....and my wandering does not change His love for me...and He will welcome me back today, because I'm His....and it's a new day.

Gifts....

A precious little brother who embraces life and every person with an open heart and no pretenses....who sometimes so disarms me with his cuteness, his sweet and mischievous spirit, his hilarity at the simple and silly things!

An unexpected letter from a friend.

Discovering new songs that breathe God's heart to me and express my heart back to Him.

Crystal snowflakes floating on gentle breath outside my window.

Walking through hushed winter woods at dusk.

Peppermint Hershey Kisses!

A warm, cozy space to call my own.

Time to sleep in and linger with God and recover from a week of super early mornings.

The Creator of my heart inviting me into deep intimacy with Himself.

Please.  Stop and listen.  Breathe.  Ask Him to open your eyes to the way He is filling your life with grace.  With His presence.  Let the Greatest Gift renew your hope today.  He loves you so much!  Don't let doubt and unbelief stop you from reaching out.  He's just waiting for His children to get hungry.  So He can fill us.