Born of God, then and now

               On this last day of 2013, I write what turns out to be the 33^rd post of the year.  No drumroll necessary, but perhaps a little cheer that I have continued to “crank out” a tidbits from the various thoughts and insights that have moved me and sustained me over this last year.  A recent tidbit has put together two familiar items in my “faith catalogue,” but as God often does, something new has been brought to my attention.

               About eight years ago, a line about possibilities kept coming to mind, one that didn’t seem like a familiar scripture.  Thanks to the marvels of Google, I traced its origin to a prayer with several admonitions, including, “May you never forget the infinite possibilities born of faith.”  Just weeks later, as I decluttered what was under various magnets on our refrigerator, I found the whole prayer printed out from an old email.  I do love how the Holy Spirit “brings to our remembrance” these little treasures—scriptures, prayers, song lyrics—that have nourished us along the way.

               Here’s where it gets interesting; well, I think it gets interesting.  On this Christmas Eve, for the first time in a long time, most of our Laughlin clan of eight went to church that night.  Our newest member (about 10 weeks old) was at our daughter’s house, safe and sound with her mother—as it should have been on a cold winter’s night.  Perhaps more than ever, this year I have appreciated God’s holy “orchestration,” bringing together so many parts and players for the birthing of baby Jesus in that manger so long ago.  Singing the carols, hearing the scriptures, taking communion and lighting our candles in the dimly lit sanctuary were wonderfully familiar—and we were together in one city on this night of remembrance.

               It was the next day or two before I “saw” a connection between one of the readings and the line about possibilities in my special prayer.  John’s first chapter is so often read, and one part had caught my attention previously:  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God . . . who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12.13).  The point to me has been that this birth is God’s doing by God’s power touching us and moving us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.  Amazing, wondrous and altogether accomplished by God.

               More clearly, I realized these “infinite possibilities” are also “born of God.”  As we seek God, as we try to know Him more and to live as His children led by His Holy Spirit, God offers us these golden nuggets, these opportunities to lay hold of the gifts of faith He longs to drop in our hearts so that we will believe, simply believe, that God is still the miracle-working God He presents Himself as in the scriptures and especially in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

               God extends to us, each and every day, this love that persists, that seeks us out and wants to pull us into His realm of thinking, His way of loving, His way of believing for what He alone can bring to pass.  Looking back on 2013, I am so very thankful for what this persistent love has accomplished in my life and the lives of others.  Looking forward to 2014, I hope for and expect even more of this love of God that demonstrates itself in such powerful and wonderful ways.