You know you are behind the times when you want to write about something that happened around Christmas when it is almost Valentine’s Day.  Nonetheless, that would describe me. Actually, a few days before Christmas I had this great idea for a blog. The excitement and  revelation that I felt about what I wanted to write was just too good to keep to myself, so I decided that I would give Dave and Hunter a preview.

It all kind of came together for me in a simple way. While reading the Christmas story this year, a short sentence that I had never noticed before just seemed to jump off the page and yell at me. A new thought that my  mind had never really grasped taught me a deeper spiritual lesson that I just had to share.  I have always been a fan of the shepherds, who were out tending their flocks by night, when that angel appeared and about scared them to death. I love the fact that the shepherds were the “least of these” in some respects because they had jobs that were thought to be so insignificant. I love the fact that God chose to tell the shepherds that Jesus was born before he told anybody else, and when that sky filled with a multitude of angels, I know the sky had to have been a light show unlike anything they had ever seen!

The fact that the shepherds were told where to go and what to look for is interesting, but this year, when I read this story, I was simply intrigued when I saw the words written after the shepherds had followed the directions they had been given.  Luke 2:20 says, ” The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

I read these words to myself one morning and pondered a deeper spiritual meaning. As clear as day I realized a simple truth that I was determined to share. Now, I do not normally tell my family in advance what I plan to write, but when Dave, Hunter, and I read the Christmas story together on Christmas Eve, I could not contain my revelation any longer. As soon as we finished reading verse 20 in Luke, I blurted out, “Do you all get it? When the shepherds got there and saw the stable, the manger, and the baby, it was just as they had been told!”

Let me help you understand my family. They have never really appreciated my imagination or understood my line of thinking. I could tell by the looks on their faces that I had not yet made my point, so I continued. “You see, everything was like the angel said it would be when they went to Bethlehem. It was just like God told them it would be. It was just like the angel said.”

Still no reaction; no great “Ah!ha!” moment or “Gee, Kim, you are so right and smart to realize that.”  So, again, I felt compelled, by the dumbfounded looks on their faces, to try once again to relay what new fact I had learned from a familiar passage.  I began, “Guys, don’t you get it? It was just like they had been told. Not kind of like it or similar to it; it was just like it!” One last time I added, with dramatic emphasis and hands waving in the air, “IT WAS JUST LIKE THEY HAD BEEN TOLD!”

Finally, Dave looked at Hunter in bewilderment then looked at me. “We get it, Kim! It was just like they had been told. We understand what you are saying. We got it the first time you said it ten minutes ago!”…Now you know why I keep my blog ideas a secret!

It was a needed revelation for me. I guess my simple mind needed reassurance that we can trust God’s word all of the time: present, past, and future. His word is truth, and it is just as we have been told. God has told me some things in the past months that make me ask, “Lord, are you serious?” Much like the shepherds wanted to say to the angels as they got news that seemed impossible to believe. Lucky for us, they followed the angel’s directions and went to see for themselves, and we have their testimonies that everything they were told was exactly what they saw. The impossible made possible; the unbelievable proven true.

Maybe this new reminder from the Lord is just what I needed for the new year.  I’m late with making my New Year’s resolutions, but hopefully February is not too late to share with you my word for 2014. The word that I keep hearing over and over from God is trust. Trust is easier for some people than others. It is easy to trust someone when everything in your life feels happy and safe, but throw in a scary situation and before you know it, trust can waiver. I can testify to that fact. Trusting God is a choice we make daily or even many times throughout the day as we encounter the good, the bad, and the uncertain parts of our lives.

I have come a long way in trusting God since Holt’s accident, but I believe that God is showing me that I need to trust Him even more today. When I cannot fathom why things have happened in a certain way, just trust. When things in life do not work out as quickly as I want, just trust. When I see a shorter route but God takes me on the long journey instead, just trust. When I have more questions than answers, just trust.

Very few of us have those “angels in the night sky” experiences like the shepherds, but knowing that everything that God promised, long before he told the shepherds about it, was the truth makes me trust Him more with my life today.  The shepherds saw it for themselves and then told everyone it was true. Thankfully, their testimony reminds my simple mind that the impossible is possible for me.