Friends, cradle and cross

      In an often hard, dark world, sometimes, God just blows us away.  Reminds us that He is there.  That He is sovereign.  That He is all-powerful.  And that He can do anything... absolutely anything.
     "For," as the angel Gabriel declared to Mary, "nothing will be impossible with God." (Lk.2:37)
     A couple of us moms and daughters got together yesterday for some lunch and a cookie exchange.  None of us quite knew what we were doing when it came to the cookie exchange part, but we had a blast anyway.  And it all turned out well in the end since we all got lots of variations of chocolate cookies.  So much chocolate, so little time.   Life is good.
     But this story goes back a ways.  The second night of Janie's stay in ICU in the hospital at Greenville, while she was still unconscious and the prognosis looked bleak, these three moms came for a visit late one evening.  We all sat with Janie in her room and talked to her as she lay there--she so still and unresponsive.  Then these sweet friends  took me out for a quick dinner at a nearby pizza spot.  The gift of friendship, of the community of faith the Lord gives us is simply incalculable.  And this gift of so many dear friends stepping in the gap with us and for us happened over and over again over those weeks and months.  Thank You, Father.
     I will never forget that night with my buddies.  In my raw weakness and worry, they strengthened me and reminded me that others were praying. So many others praying.  How can we ever begin to adequately thank them?  Such power in prayer.  Such peace in knowing others are praying even when we have no words or ability to pray.  We could feel those prayers.  We were buoyed by those prayers and knew that we were not alone.  Emmanuel was with us--God with us, forever and ever.  But also Emmanuel in the flesh--through His beautiful Body, the Body of the Christ.  That Body that extended across this globe to include folks who had never met us... but who prayed.  Thank You thank You thank You, Father.
     And so, yesterday, we moms and daughters got together again, four months later to the day... this time to rejoice in the goodness of a God who can do anything.  And who did the miraculous with our daughter.  And again, all I can say is thank You, Father.
     Even as I write these words, I know there are so many others who have not seemed to receive God's miraculous intervention.  Their loved one was not healed.  Their beloved child died.  Their relationship was not restored.  Their desperately longed-for answer was not forthcoming.  And we ask why?  Why is one healed and the other not?
     There are no simple answers... not this side of heaven.  One day we will see and know and understand all things fully.  On that glorious day, our faith will be made sight.  But until then... in those empty spaces, we choose trust.
      Trust in the One Who did not spare His only Son.  The One who had all power to save His Son... but did not, because of His infinite love for us. "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Rom.8:32)
     When we wonder, we look to the cross.  When we doubt God's love, we look to the cross.  When we question and struggle, we look to the cross.  We cannot understand why some and not others... we can simply thank Him and give Him glory for those moments of divine intervention, but choose to continue trusting and clinging to His cross in those times when we still await His answers.  Trusting in the love that sent His only beloved Son to the cradle and refused to spare Him from the cross.  And trusting even when we cannot see a way through the darkness,  He who demonstrated such infinite love for us, is The Way... and He has His way for us.
     So this Christmas, might we continue to look to the cross.  Might the gruesome, glorious shadow of His cross fall across our every celebration of the Baby Savior in the manger.  And give us joy.
     As Ann Voscamp writes, "If there is no cross in my Christmas, then my Christmas has lost Christ, and what is the manger if it is not for the Messiah, the One who saves us with His scars?  This Babe who lays in a wooden manger, who came to lie on a wooden cross, He is healing all wounds."
     Thank You for healing our wounds... some physical, but all spiritual.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your cradle and Your cross.   To God be the glory.