Christmas: a time for miracles

I want to share an extraordinary story about one family’s Christmas miracle.

This true story began one year in early spring when a husband and father woke up one Sunday morning and decided to leave his family. As you might expect, the decision caught his wife and young son off-guard, and needless to say, in his wife’s words, the term “devastation” was an understatement. Despite his wife and son begging him in tears not to leave, the wife repeatedly asked him to tell her what was wrong. She even suggested they seek marital counseling. Still, he chose to leave and walked out the door.

There is no way I could express the agony endured by this woman and her son. In her own words, she said, “It was a nightmare I could not wake from.” For the first week, the young boy continued telling his mother that he would sacrifice all his toys if Daddy came home. With her own heart already shattered by the pain of her husband leaving, the wound only deepened when she saw the anguish and sacrifice her son was willing to make out of love for his father. Many of the woman’s friends told her, “forget him” and “he doesn’t deserve you.” However, one friend convinced her that God was, and is, still in the miracle business.

So, the woman set out on a prayer journey and with a team of prayer warriors at her church. Even though she knew God could do anything, she wondered how her husband would hear the tender voice of the Holy Spirit if he were unwilling to listen. “How in the world is this going to work?” she thought to herself. She remained persistent in her prayers, asking for the Lord to intervene and bring her husband home. She was no longer asking her husband to come home because she said his response was always cruel and hurtful, and she could not take it anymore. She even returned her wedding ring to him, saying that it no longer represented something he wanted and was too painful for her to wear.

As time progressed, the woman and her son began to pick up the pieces and adjust to a new normal. She continued to pray and cling to her faith, but the prayer she lifted to God changed over time from asking the Lord to “God, please bring him back” to “God, if it’s Your Will for us to get back together or divorced, I will accept either way.” She realised that there was nothing that she could do on her own to bring her husband back home. Therefore, she relinquished control of the situation to God. She placed her burden at the foot of the cross and yielded her will in favour of God’s will. In other words, she took a cue from Jesus, who said to His father, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

In December of that same year, the woman received a phone call from her husband, saying he would like to come home! She told him that, of course, he could come home. She was nervous and did not know what to expect, and her son asked questions to which she did not have the answers. When the husband returned and poured out his feelings, he told her how much he missed her and their son and never wanted to leave again.

What changed the man’s mind? How could he go from such a state of disconnection to the revelation of how much he truly loved and cherished his family? The answer is simple: God heard and answered the woman and her son’s prayer and the prayers of many on their behalf.

Oh, and the wedding ring she returned to her husband when he left. Unknown to her, he took it to the original jeweller, where he purchased it, had it polished, and put it in a new box. When he came home, he presented it to her and asked if she would wear it again because he wanted everyone to know she was his wife.

What a fantastic ending to a true story that shows there is power in prayer and that God does hear and answer the prayers of His people every time we lift our voices to Him. We also see the power of God’s mercy and grace through the wife when she forgives her husband for leaving (mercy) and welcomes him back home (grace).

Today, we live in a world where people ask God to show them a miracle so they can believe. However, we see in this story that the woman first believes, and then God shows her a miracle. It is a Christmas miracle for them to share as a testimony of how much God loves us, that He always hears us, watches out for us, and answers our prayers every time, all the time.

What Christmas miracle are you looking for, and have you taken it to the foot of the cross in prayer, asking for the Lord’s will to be done, not yours?

In this story, when the woman gave God the reigns over the situation, she began to see her prayers answered and was willing to accept God’s answer no matter what.

Remember, God will always hear and answer the prayers of His people, every time, all the time. So why are you waiting?

Go to the Lord in prayer, pour out your heart, and be prepared because He will answer according to His will, in His way, and in His perfect timing! The Lord tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans that I have for you, plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

The story also symbolises the words of Apostle Paul, who wrote in His letter to the Corinthian church, “Now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13). What miracle are you praying for by faith this Christmas?

By Darryl Orrell

Darryl is a an anointed writer, journalist and evangelist with a passion for sharing God’s word. He has an M.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in English with Honours in Latin, from Regent University. Visit him on the web at www.afaithfulsower.org His motto for his life and ministry is what John the Baptist told his disciples, “HE must increase, but I must decrease.” Darryl also serves as a ministry leader and teacher at Woodland Heights Baptist Church, in Chesapeake, Virginia.