The biggest mistake at Christmas

Last Christmas did not look like the one I had imagined.

After the flood, we did not have our home.
And with that came the quiet ache of losing the picture I carried for years.

The full house.
The open door.
Everyone gathered under one roof.

I told myself the hardest part was logistics.
Where everyone would sleep.
How we would make it work.

But the deeper struggle was this.

I measured God’s provision by whether Christmas looked like it used to.

I felt disappointed.
Then resentful.
Then tired of trying to recreate something that no longer fit the season we were in.

One night, the truth finally surfaced.

I was not upset because Christmas was ruined.
I was grieving because the picture had changed.

And I did not know how to hold that.

The next day, a woman from my in-laws’ church called.
She offered her home for our family to stay.

I did not ask.
I did not plan it.
I could not have made it happen.

While my kids were not all under my roof that Christmas, something holy happened.

God provided.
Just not in the way I expected.

There was warmth.
There was safety.
There was care.

Provision showed up without matching the old picture.

That Christmas taught me something I did not know I needed.

God is not limited to our definitions of blessing.
And disappointment often comes when we cling to how something should look.

Devotional thought for you.

If you are entering a new chapter and mourning what no longer fits, you are not ungrateful.
You are human.

Sometimes faith is not about forcing the old picture to work again.
It is about receiving provision in a new form.

Hope grows when we stop comparing today to yesterday.

If you are longing for steadiness, trust, and resilience as you move into what is next, this is your last call to buy my devotional before Christmas. Go to Amazon to purchase your copy today! https://a.co/d/hrumAoJ

You do not have to figure this chapter out alone.

with Care – Tracey