All Decked Out For Christmas by Maureen Lang One of the reasons so many of us love the holiday season is that it’s just so…pretty! Twinkling lights, shiny ornaments, packages that glisten with bows and fancy wrapping. Our houses are trimmed with wreaths and glowing trees, and the neighborhood lights up the night with strands… [Continue Reading]

Magnificat by Anna Joujan Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord. The familiar catch of breath. The sting in the eyes. And the tears begin to flow with the falling rain. Or do the tears fall with the flowing rain. What is it in these words that I whisper that wrenches at my heart so? Why… [Continue Reading]

A Soggy, Jolly, Holly Christmas by Melody Carlson One of my most memorable Christmases started out as a natural disaster. But isn’t that a bit how a pearl is formed? An oyster’s soft easy life is disrupted by the invasion of sand, but something good comes out of it. When I was eight, we experienced… [Continue Reading]

Calling Elizabeth … HELP! by Tricia Goyer Mary, the mother of Jesus is one of the most well-known women of all time. She was also a teen mom facing an unplanned pregnancy. This Christmas we will see evidence of Mary’s story all around us. And as you hear it through Christmas songs and Christmas shows… [Continue Reading]

The Answer by Susan May Warren Whos, Here, we are Whos here, smaller than the eye can see. Whos here, we are Whos here, I’m a Who and so is she… I’ve always wanted to live in a musical. When I was a kid, I loved Oklahoma, Sound of Music, West Side Story. I seriously… [Continue Reading]

Christmas in a Barn by Mary DeMuth The Christmas of 2006 we were homeless. We didn’t have keys. Not to a car, not to a home. We’d flown halfway around the world, leaving behind a ministry we toiled over. Much, particularly in our hearts, lay in ruins. Some friends had a camp, and on that… [Continue Reading]

The Pearls We Pass Down by Holley Gerth Ten years ago my Grandma Frances went home to heaven in her sleep just before Christmas. My Grandpa carefully handed me a brightly-wrapped box on Christmas morning and said, “This is her gift. Now I want you to have it.” I opened the lid slowly and tears… [Continue Reading]

A Long Ago Christmas Memory by Patricia Crisafulli The old farm on a dirt road in the backwoods of northern New York State was described to me so many times, I can imagine the place, even though I never saw it: the big frame house with the wide porch, the pair of maple trees out… [Continue Reading]

How to Cope with Christmas by Stacie Ruth Stoelting Last night, I dreamed that God resurrected my beautiful adopted aunt, Mary Jo Hoffman. But morning renewed my mourning for her: Christmas trees, snow globes, and music greeted my grieving heart. Relate? In previous years, my maternal grandpa (a.k.a. “Papa Ray”) died near Thanksgiving and my… [Continue Reading]

A Tangible Reminder by Mary Byers Last year I read Me, Myself, & Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer, creator of the Veggie Tales video series. I was interested because my children grew up on Veggie Tales. But I was also interested because somewhere along the way I… [Continue Reading]