She’s gone,” I say over and over. And with her went the dreams that made my life worth the living. Yet, God is the crafter of new dreams that render old dreams so small that the pain of them is swallowed up in the promise of tomorrow.

With God, we will never be backed into a corner because He is bigger than any room.

Sooner or later I will be faced with the fact that the world is helpless to meet my needs. And at that point, I will be left with two conclusions; that life is cruel or God is real.

The greatest stance that I can take has nothing to do with standing, rather it has everything to do with dropping…to my knees.

It is the person of prayer who shakes the world. And it is when our knees hit the ground in prayer that the shaking begins.

To rely on our own energy to sustain us is a ‘set-up’ that will be rather quickly followed by a ‘falling down.’ And to avoid either, I must engage God.

When surrounded by the ashes of all that I once cherished, despite my best efforts I can find no room to be thankful. But standing there amidst endless ash I must remember that although the ashes surround me, God surrounds the ashes. And once that realization settles upon me, I am what I thought I could never be ... I am thankful for ashes.

The hand of God is wonderfully evident at those times when He pens stories whose lines we ourselves are far too fearful to pen or whose imaginations are far too limited to envision. And I would unashamedly suggest that the Christmas story is that very story.

Given the lethal enormity of sin and the inestimable value of a single soul, a baby in a manger and a man on a cross makes more sense that anything else I will ever be able to possibly imagine.