“We prayed for a white Christmas. We had been praying for months for rain and snow and now with just a week to go before Christmas the forecast predicted eight days of sunny weather. As I finished my closing prayer to the congregation I included “but not my will but yours be done!” The service ended and I went home to enjoy a well-earned Sunday afternoon lull with my wife and daughter.
“We prayed for a white Christmas. We had been praying for months for rain and snow and now with just a week to go before Christmas the forecast predicted eight days of sunny weather. As I finished my closing prayer to the congregation I included “but not my will but yours be done!” The service ended and I went home to enjoy a well-earned Sunday afternoon lull with my wife and daughter.
The next week brought warm days and brisk southwest winds. About midweek the weather began to change as meteorologists struggled to predict what was happing, as this system was defying their computer generated models. By Wednesday night it was already raining as a warm wet storm came out of nowhere to drench the parched soils of Descanso California.
The experts said that the storm had materialized out of nowhere bringing with it a measurable rainfall but still no snow was in the forecast for Christmas.
As providence would have it, on Saturday the winds changed and began blowing from the north. Trees began to sway and leaves were blown from their branches. It would seem as if the weather was not obeying the meteorologist’s models but was being guided by an invisible hand! My phone went off late Christmas Eve as I received a text from Lorna, the church secretary, she texted me, “Our prayers have been answered!” and sent along a picture of a large drift of snow covering a car in the church parking lot. It would seem God had answered our prayers for a white Christmas despite the expert’s predictions!
Isn’t it just like God to answer our prayers like that when we least expect it! I wasn’t really expecting it to snow at our church on Christmas Eve, since it hadn’t snowed in December in any recorded history of the area. I can only guess that He wanted to build up our faith and chose this time and this way to do it.
God cares for us intimately; He cares for our needs and wants to guide us through all the pitfalls, muck and mire that bog us down as we travel through this present world. If we would only trust and come to Him with our requests like a child, in childlike faith then He will answer them in His perfect time.”
