But God: Advent Series - Tim Knipp

Sparkles and glitter,
twinkles and evergreen...
only a suspension
of disbelief
(willful blindness,
naivete)
can ignore 
the chasm
between
bright adornments
of the season
and  
the day-by-day
slog 
through the mud
that is reality.

Cancer and 
confinement,
traffic tie-ups,
continual disappointment,
parental migraines - 
the traps and tussles
of everydayness...
it is more, much more
than we can at times
endure.
We can no more control
the incipient onslaught 
than harness  
the hurricane;
but
we can fall flat,
deflated,
defeated,
and yet believe.
We can be devastated,
abandoned,
deceived,
and yet believe.

It will not
necessarily all
work out,
yet to Him I will look.
For all around me
are broken puzzle
pieces whose
design I cannot
fathom.
But God
who can raise the dead,
can cause bare bones
to become enfleshed;
but God
can plant seeds
into infertile wombs
- watch them sprout life;
can expel demented demons,
stroll on the sea,
expire on a cross
and beat death
in hand-to-hand combat.
The unbelievable
follows in His wake
like stardust 
trailing
a meteor -
see it sparkle
like tinsel!

Yes, the world is laced
with sorrow,
but sprinkled 
also with fragrant hope
and golden goodness,
one taste of which
lasts a lifetime.
Yes, we continually
falter and flail,
but God...
but God...
What a Being 
this is!

 2 Cor. 1 & 11