A Christmas onion

Never thought I'd be blogging about an onion at Christmastime, but here goes...

First I need to explain that God's been doing a lot of pushing on issues in my heart recently and I've been trying to avoid them.

But God is God and when He wants to be heard He has a universe of ways to get our attention.

Recently He's used my pastor, his wife, my Sunday school class, our home group, my children, snatches of conversations I've heard in passing, things I notice on TV (When I'm watching TV, it's a major clue that I'm running from something.) and just about everything short of writing His message in the sky.

A very cool thing about God is that even though we sometimes run, we can stop and turn back to look Him in the face and see His purpose in working so hard to get through to us is for our good.

I saw that so clearly about a month ago when I got still and listened to His heart about forgiveness. The freedom He offered and I received was one of the best Christmas presents ever.

But there was more.

God had an onion to give me.

I would have preferred a chocolate covered cherry to go on top of the sweet treat of peace that came after I obeyed the Lord through forgiveness.

But the onion makes more sense really. Here's why.

This past month I've been looking back over a very hard year. This is something I routinely do every December, but this year I had begun to see more and more of God's hand in every circumstance. More of His love covering each painful situation.

Then I started to look back over the last thirteen years of my life and got very frustrated. Because when it comes to real change and growth, it seems I've been in a hamster's wheel, trying to get ahead but never getting very far.

I keep having to learn the same lessons over and over and over again.

Here entered the Lord's visual of an onion's many layers.

My pastor said it best when he prayed for me by asking the Lord to keep peeling back the layers and working His healing within.

As I thought about that image, it began to spread past my mind and into my heart. Because sometimes it looks like we're dealing with the same issue, but we're not. It's God taking us deeper in that issue to continue His healing work.

It's a process of God peeling back layers and taking healing into deeper and deeper places.

There's so much freedom in that! Our lives are not two steps forward and three steps back. Or a hamster's wheel going nowhere. Or that we just didn't "get it" and are being taken back to school yet again.

It's God continuing His work, delving deeper and deeper into our lives and hearts to offer His amazing healing.

Like peeling the layers of an onion.

So if I was doing a rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas between me and the Lord, I'd have two very special gifts already opened.

A huge box that's just the size to "box me in" with circumstance so that I'd see my need for God.

And a Christmas onion. A sweet one. One that gives a picture of hope.

We're not stuck in a no-win cycle where we keep going backward more than ahead. God is always at work, peeling back layers, drawing us deeper into Him as He works in deeper and deeper places within us.

Merry Christmas!

And many God gifts for your heart this special time of the year!