Carols Devotional: “Oh Holy Night, Part 2”

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices

1 Corinthians 2:9

In Colombia we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve at midnight. Every year at 11:55p our tree would only have a couple of gifts underneath it but we all knew that right at midnight “Baby God” (yes Baby God brought my Christmas presents not Santa) would show up and bring us our presents. We would do our best to try and catch him but, as if it was scripted, at 11:58p fireworks would start going off and we would go outside and light some fireworks just to remember at 12:05a that we were supposed to be looking out for the presents to arrive, we would run back inside the house and the tree would be filled with presents. It was a miracle, presents would materialize in what seemed like 5 seconds that we took our eyes of the tree.

I can hardly remember any of the presents that I received over the years for Christmas, I don’t even remember having anticipation about a specific present that I wanted to get, but I will never forget the “thrill of hope” of knowing what was going to happen right at midnight. You see, if my excitement came from a specific present that I was waiting for I would have missed the miracle that happened every Christmas eve at my house. Our walk with God is the same way. It is amazing when God answers a prayer just the way we want Him to, but its even more rewarding when you realize that the Creator of heaven and earth did something just for you because He loves you. The fact that He is moved by your prayers is more powerful than the answered prayer could ever be and when you realize that you will have “A thrill of hope” no matter how weary you are.

Are you focusing more on what you have to say when you pray than who you are praying to? Are you missing out on miracles by being too focused on a what you want or need?

Camilo Quevedo