Christmas Miracles

We are all set to leave tomorrow for our Christmas vacation. First to Arkansas to spend Christmas Eve and Day and then on to Minnesota for a week of snowy cold. I had bought the gifts, washed the clothes and today was reserved for packing and finishing up a few last details.

That is, until I realized that the one gift Jacob REALLY wanted (and that his sister was getting too), I had misplaced. I had been so diligent about putting the gifts in the garage, covering them so as to not get caught and thought I was really doing well. But when I went to pack them up, I couldn’t find Jacob’s Nintendo DS anywhere. I mean ANYWHERE.

I searched the garage (multiple times), closets, under the bed…you name it. And I could not imagine why I hadn’t put it in the garage. I tore my house apart. When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to find it I headed out to run a few last errands and to see if maybe…just maybe….there would be one last black DS on a shelf somewhere.

Walmart…nope. Best Buy…none. Target, Sears…all out. I prayed during all this knowing that God has pulled off some much bigger miracles at Christmas than finding a DS, and hoping this would make the list of Christmas miracles 2008.

We were meeting some friends for dinner followed by our annual Christmas pageant with all 10 of our kids. Sometime during the meal, I forgot about all the stress of the day, the maniac searching, the pit in my stomach thinking about Jacob’s disappointment and began to enjoy our friends, our children and especially their rendition of the nativity story. The story which, of course, is the miracle of all Christmas miracles.

When we got home, I resolved that I’d stay up all night if need be…I was determined to find that gift. As I was putting the girls to bed I mentioned to Brittany that I didn’t know where she had put her favorite Christmas sweatshirt. She immediately began to pray…“Dear Lord, please help my mom find my sweatshirt. Amen.”

I walked into the den and immediately saw it….after not seeing it all day. I called out to Brittany…“God answers prayer!” “Found my sweatshirt?!?” “I sure did.”

And then Bill walked in. First words out of his mouth….“God answers prayer.” In his hands he held the little white bag containing that one gift that I had searched so hard for. “Found it?!” “I sure did.”

The little bag had fallen from it’s place in the garage into the tub of leftover Christmas lights. It was an answer to prayer. It was a relief.

It was my Christmas miracle.