Divine Appointments

I’ve been home for approximately 6 hours and have decided that it can now officially be Christmas. There is snow on the ground, hundreds of homemade chocolate candies in the fridge, i’m sipping green tea with my brother, and the mystery nativity scene is out on the coffee table. (It’s a mystery nativity scene because it was given to us piece by piece, one a day, years ago and we never found out who gave it to us.) It feels like Christmas. And even though I came back to a new house this Christmas, it feels like home. And those are some of the best feelings in the world.

Emy and I arrived in Anchorage at about 2:30 am after nearly 18 hours of traveling. Ridiculous. Not only have I not had a good nights sleep in about 4 days, but I slept very little on the long plane rides here, partly due to discomfort, but mostly due to excitement.

When I got home, I talked with my beautiful family and friend Alex for a while, watched a little television with my little sister, and then settled down for bed at about 5:30 am. I was tired. I needed sleep. I’m definitely one of those people who, even when I’m not terribly tired, falls asleep nearly instantly. I never have trouble getting to sleep. But for some reason, this morning I did. You’d think that after missing a nights sleep and not getting more than a couple hours of sleep in nights past it would be easy to lay down and drift off….especially for me….but that most definitely didn’t happen.

Instead I went up stairs with a book and my laptop and got comfy on the couch. Nearly as soon as I sat down, my brother walked in from his shack in the back yard. Perfect timing. And strange at the same time. I’m never one to stay up all night, and Seth’s not usually awake before 6 in the morning. Or even before noon. Weird.

Or not so weird. Seth and I had an honest-to-goodnessly, much needed, incredibly encouraging, God-focused discussion for nearly two and a half hours. I needed to hear what he had to say. In fact, earlier as I had tried to fall asleep, I had prayed that God would speak to me on the very things we discussed. It was a precious time spent with my brother, and I thank God for arranging that moment so perfectly.

It’s sometimes easy for me to let simple, every day happenings fall through the cracks as being coincidence or chance. I’ve realized that God orchestrates everything so perfectly: every situation, seemingly significant or insignificant, is part of God’s greater purpose. This week I’m going to focus on thanking God for the little things that I so often overlook.