A Nugget of Wisdom from Hollywood

I love Christmas.  I love Christmas music.  I love Christmas decorations.  I love Christmas movies.  I love Christmas sweaters with matching earrings.  I am a Christmas junkie.

I will agree that Christmas has become highly commercialized....that in the frenzy of gift buying/giving, social functions, family obligations, and "political correctness", the true meaning of Christmas is often lost in the shuffle.  But -- the Truth is out there....and it shows up in some unlikely places!

My favorite Christmas movie of all time is "Miracle on 34th Street" -- the original 1947 classic, NOT the cheesy remake.  When Santa sings in Dutch to the little war orphan....there are no words....

And, buried deep in the dialogue of this classic film, there is a line that REEKS of Truth.  When the disenchanted, bitter mother has finally found the faith to believe in Santa, when she has finally let her guard down to once again love and be loved, she shares this nugget with her little girl -- a child who has been disappointed by Santa's apparent inability to give her what she REALLY wants for Christmas.  Her mother turns to her and simply says, "Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to." 

That simple statement is one of the greatest lessons I have learned in the past year.  There have been SO many times when my common sense has told me that my faith has been misplaced.  That God has truly abandoned us, that we have been forgotten, that our circumstances could not POSSIBLY be within His control.  Everything from the decision to bring our 11 year old car back to the US (a decision which has cost us over $7,000 at this point), to being hired/fired/hired within the course of a year, moving Jack to his third school in three years, moving Molly from her beloved Belmont to James Madison University, watching our hard earned savings disappear before our eyes, realizing that Virginia isn't "home" and that home (Wisconsin) is still too far away....SO many times I have questioned and wondered "Why?"....and my faith has wavered.

But, by God's grace, I am married to a man who is a man of faith.  A man whose first response to EVERY crisis has been "We will be fine.  God will take care of us."  At times I have found this to be incredibly annoying and very  unsympathetic, but the reality is that he is right!  We ARE fine, God HAS taken care of us.....even when common sense told me that all is lost and we cannot possibly survive.  Have God's answers always been what I would have chosen?  No, but I am learning to trust Him.  To recognize that He has a plan for me and for my family that transcends my minuscule understanding.   To have the faith to believe in HIM, even when (especially when??), common sense tells me not to.