About Barbara Harper

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The Light Shines in the Darkness

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Before we take the Christmas decorations down, I love to just sit and look at the lights for a while, to savor the season that passed so quickly. Besides lights on the tree, I have a lighted garland over the windows next to my desk and a small tree on my dresser, as well as the outdoor lights.

Christmas lights are one of the things I miss the most when everything goes back to “normal.” The rest of the winter can be hard with less light and barren, cold, colorless landscapes. Valentine’s Day is a bright spot for us. We have family birthdays in February and March. But that stretch of winter is usually my least favorite part of the year.

It helps to know that, after the winter solstice in December, we’re gradually getting more sunlight. It doesn’t look or feel like it at first. But I take it on faith that it is happening and it will be noticeable in several weeks.

Scripture mentions light over 200 times. God made it the first day of creation in Genesis 1. And the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, says that in the “new Jerusalem,” we won’t need lamps or even sunlight any more, because “the Lord God will be their light.”

Some of the Bible references to light are metaphorical. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Matthew 4:12-17 says this was fulfilled in Jesus.

When Simeon saw Jesus as a baby, he said, “My eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:22-32).

In John 8:12, Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

After John the Baptist was born, his father, Zechariah, said, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79). Some other translations use “dawn” or “dayspring” in place of “sunrise.”

Josh Taylor shares this beautiful observation in Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity:

When you’re watching a sunrise, you can’t pinpoint the exact moment night becomes day. It spreads, seeps into everything, changes the whole landscape one shade at a time. That’s what God’s mercy does through Jesus. It doesn’t just blast away the darkness—it transforms it, warms it, makes things grow that couldn’t grow before.

Christmas isn’t just about string lights and wrapped presents. It’s about light breaking into darkness in the gentlest way possible. About God looking at our mess and instead of sending judgment, sending His Son—the Dayspring, the Sunrise.

Sometimes the quietest light makes the biggest difference (pp. 140-141).

Sometimes God appears in a blaze of glory: on Sinai, to Paul the apostle, in Revelation. But when Jesus came to save us, He came gently, spreading His light like a sunrise.

Sometimes it’s hard to see His light. As Andrew Peterson wrote in his beautiful song, “Is He Worthy,” the world feels broken. Sometimes it seems like the wrong side is winning.

But John 4:9 assures us, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Maltbie Babcock captures something of this truth in “This Is My Father’s World”: “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.”

His light is with us beyond Christmas. We see God’s light in His Word. We see it in His people. We see it when people turn to Jesus for salvation and serve Him and others.

Those big, glorious bursts of God’s light are usually for a short time, for specific special occasions. Then life goes back to (a hopefully new) normal. After all the excitement Mary experienced with a visit from Gabriel, having baby Jesus, and running from Herod, she spent the next several years as an ordinary wife and mother. But she “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19). After the shepherds saw the angel host and followed the instructions to find the newborn Jesus, they likely went back to shepherding. But “they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. . . And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:17, 20).

Like Mary, we can treasure and ponder what we’ve seen, heard, and experienced. Like the shepherds, we can share His light with others, glorifying and praising Him in our everyday lives.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on January 3, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I’m not quite caught up with my online reading, but here are some good things I found this week:

When You Don’t Get Anything Out of Devotions. “Sometimes God meets with us in a special way. Occasionally a verse or a phrase or a thought can revolutionize our lives, but I have found that those times tend to be rare. Rather, it’s the slow and steady repetition of reading God’s Word, asking Him to change me, and watching as that happens little by little through the weeks, months, and years.”

Jesus Is Unashamed to Take Awkward Family Christmas Photos, HT to Challies. “In many ways, the Old Testament can be seen as a massive coffee-table photo book. Sometimes the photos are stunning. But for any Old Testament family with a decent collection of pictures, there are—without exception—some awkward family photos. We read about priests and kings, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who we’d be ashamed to claim as family. Would Abraham have stuck Lot’s picture on his fridge at Christmas? Would you?”

Don’t Be Duped by This Year’s Religious Trend, HT to Challies. “The religious zeal with which the world pursues self-help isn’t surprising. Lacking a Savior, nonbelievers will look inward to solve their problems. But it’s concerning when self-help methods begin to trickle into Christian thought and teaching. In Colossians, Paul warns the church not to be taken captive by any human doctrine that is ‘not according to Christ’” (Col. 2:8).

The Scopes Trial at 100: Fact, Fiction, and the Christian Historian, HT to Challies. “The trial remains embedded in the American imagination a century later. It was a key skirmish in what’s often depicted as the great ideological conflict of the modern world: science versus religion. However, this telling is too simplistic.” I learned some things I hadn’t known about the trial.

How Do We Measure Christian Maturity? (Hint: It’s not Just Bible Facts), HT to Challies. “We often measure maturity by the wrong metrics. We confuse information with formation, and equate Christian vocabulary with Christ-like virtue. Which is understandable because information is measurable. But I don’t think that it’s the right way.”

Being Ourselves in Heaven, HT to the Story Warren. “These are common portrayals of the afterlife, disembodied ghosts—pale reflections of a person’s former self—floating in a nebulous netherworld. But these stories do not accurately reflect what our lives will be like on the New Earth. A central part of our bodily resurrection will be the continuity of our identity.”

The Coming of the Light, HT to the Story Warren. “Soon the winter solstice will be upon us. On the twenty-first of December the sun will struggle into the sky for just a few short hours before sinking below the horizon once again. Taken in isolation, this day could be viewed as a victory for darkness. Without the benefit of history we could be forgiven for believing that the light will gradually be swallowed up and disappear. Armed with the bigger picture, we know that the longest night is simply a turning point. There are dark days still ahead but, from this night on, the coming of the light is inevitable.”

Mary: Enduring Shame for the Cause of Christ. “Pain? Sure. Hardship? Yes. Poverty? OK. Hard work? Count me in. Death? That one is very hard, but yes. Public humiliation? Uh, maybe not.”

Don’t Fight the Wrong War, HT to Challies. “I reject the framework that Christians are at war to maintain conservative and Christian values. In fact, adopting this worldview may cause us to lose the real war God calls us to fight.”

AI Griefbots? HT to Challies. “With the powers of generative AI technology, we can summon the voices of our friends, family members, and even heroes from beyond the grave. . . . But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. The apostle Paul writes, ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful” (1 Cor. 10:23).”

Single This Season? Prove He’s Sufficient. Though the context here is the difficulty of being single during the Christmas season, it’s truths are applicable year round.

Renewal From Wreckage: How A Near Death Experience Changed Trevor Gearhart (video). I’ve mentioned the Dead Man Talking podcast a couple of times. Bob Roberts, camp speaker and creator of Kids 4 Truth, has been dealing with stage four cancer in his liver and discussing what God is doing through that with four longtime friends. They had a guest on this episode: a pastor friend who had a massive heart attack while driving, crashed into the stairwell of a building, and was pronounced dead. He was resuscitated and had triple bypass surgery. Though my own physical issues have not been that serious, I identified with several things he said.

“What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, aye, and every drop of their fulness in him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art the present portion of thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus” (From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening reading for January 1).

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Barbara Harper

We’ve had another full but lovely week. Well, except that some have been sick. But hopefully all are on the mend. Here are a few favorites, shared with you all and Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Family time. Jeremy, our oldest son, was here until yesterday. He had to work remotely from our house this week, but popped in for lunch and coffee breaks. It’s so nice he could do that rather than having to cut off his visit last weekend.

2. A mixed outing. Mayfield Dairies Farm Park advertised a Merry Mayfield Christmas.with all kinds of activities. We went on the last day, but it was strangely deserted. Only one other family was there besides us, though more came later. I only saw two employees on the field. About half the advertised activities were not available. Jeremy said it looked like one of those weird empty carnival movie sets where a maniacal clown was going jump out at us at any moment. But we played in what was available and had fun. The best part was an apple cannon, where you shoot old apples at targets. Strange as it sounds, it was very satisfying to do!

Apple cannon:

Me taking aim:

Big slide:

Tire swing:

Lassoing the fake cows with hula hoops. 🙂

Photo op:

3. More adventurous cooking. I mentioned last week that all my kids have become good cooks, though they didn’t show much interest in it while they were in high school and college. They’re also much more adventurous than I am. 🙂 Jeremy made Hungarian Chicken Paprikash for us one night. And I was amazed and delighted to learn from him about a couple of products I hadn’t known about–tomato paste in a tube (for when you only need a tablespoon or two) and frozen minced garlic.

4. Low-Key New Year’s Eve. We had an assortment of snacks, then played games. Everyone went home between 9 and 10. Jim, Jeremy, and I fell asleep in the living room, but Jeremy set his alarm so we could turn on the TV in time to watch the ball drop in NYC. 🙂

5. Coupon from Audible. Audible had an offer saying if you spent three credits within a specified time, they’d gift you a ccoupon of $15 towards audiobook purchases. I was able to find two Christmas novellas and one novel with my coupon.

Bonus: Good news from a friend undergoing a kidney transplant. All went well with the surgery and his numbers have improved immensely the first day after. One of my simple pleasures is getting new wall calendars set up for the year. Jeremy made it to RI with no scheduling problems. Though we miss him already, his cat was glad to have him back. 🙂 Jason and Mittu got me some much-needed larger plastic storage containers, unasked and unexpectedly (I think prompted by my sending soup home with them in the only large container I had which had a broken lid 🙂 ). We finally got some family photos New Year’s Eve:

Happy New Year to you!

The Threshold of a New Year

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Barbara Harper

This poem comes to mind as we face a new year:

Thou standest on the threshold
Of days which are unknown;
Thou standest at the gateway
Of paths unmapped, unshown;
But God Himself is with thee-
Thy Saviour, Keeper, Friend;
And He will not forsake thee,
Nor leave thee to life’s end.

Thou standest, and thou askest-
“What have the days in store?”
He answereth thee. “Blessing!
Yea blessing more and more.”
What form the blessing taketh
Thou mayest not yet know,
But blessing upon blessing,
He waiteth to bestow.

Thou waitest – and He waiteth:
He waiteth now to bless;
To link His sovereign greatness
To human helplessness;
To show, through all life’s journey,
His tireless care for thee;
To fill thy incompleteness
With His sufficiency.

Thou pausest on the threshold –
Enfolded lies the year;
But with God’s arms beneath thee,
There is no cause for fear.
Through shadowed days or sunlit –
Whate’er the year may bring –
This fact may be thy comfort;
God reigns in everything.

James Danson Smith

I couldn’t find much information about the author, but his poem speaks to me. Whatever the new year holds, God is with His own and loves them.

May you all be His own and walk with Him closely in the new year and beyond. May you know more and more of His greatness, love, and sufficiency.

“But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:11-12).

December Reflections

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I know I often comment on how quickly time seems to go by, but, wow, December flew by in a blur! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over.

Most of the first part of the month was preparation for Christmas, as I am sure it was for many of you–ordering and wrapping presents, writing our Christmas letter, addressing and mailing cards, making cards for the family.

When we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I did something to my back. I wasn’t aware of wrenching or pulling anything at the time, But about 11 that night, I started experiencing spasms that left me in tears. Those subsided after a few days, but I’ve had lower back pain the rest of this month until this week. My dear husband stepped in to help in a multitude of ways. Icy Hot, Tylenol, and and heating pads have been my friends.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary this month at a new-to-us steakhouse, bringing home Krispy Kreme for dessert.

Our oldest son came in from RI the weekend before Christmas. We had a great Christmas with all the family as well as lots of time together to chat and play games.

But we have been trading colds around, so some have missed different activities. We’re hoping to have at least one more dinner all together before Jeremy has to leave.

Watching

A few things we watched this month:

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. A boy’s life is turned upside down when his father dies (I think in the Civil War). The boy and his mother have to move to be with her sister. On the trip, he loses a treasured Nativity set. They ask a woodworking recluse in their new town to carve a new one for them, and gradually, a friendship forms, healing both hearts.

Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas. This was a documentary with much of it acted out. I wasn’t expecting a lot from it, honestly, knowing how these things usually go on TV. But I was pleasantly surprised. They got a couple of things wrong, but overall, it was very good. My favorite part was the scene with Simeon realizing he was seeing the promised Christ.

Christmas on the Square was a cheesy, badly lip-synched musical, but it was still kind of cute in a way. Dolly Parton wrote it and stars as both a homeless woman and an angel. A Scroogish woman who owns all the buildings in the town square plans to sell the place and evict everyone right before Christmas, until she’s shown the error of her ways.

Joy for Christmas was a pretty typical modern Christmas movie. It caught our eye because we had seen the actress in something else. A publicist whose family holds an annual charity event for children fights to keep it going. When she meets a famous athlete, she tries to recruit him to appear at their benefit. But he’s not into Christmas, so she tries to kindle some Christmas spirit in him. A clean, sweet film.

We also watched the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street for the very first time. It was cute, but I’m not fond of stories that involve trying to convince people that Santa is real. I’m not militantly anti-Santa–we treated him as any other fairy tale or storybook character when our kids were small. But I don’t want to give him the credit for gifts we lovingly chose for our children, not convince them to believe something they’re going to find out later is false.

Creating

This was a busy month for cards. When I am making a lot at one time, I rely more on stickers and simple designs.

This first one was for my friend, Melanie, whose birthday is near the end of November. She likes purple, so I try to feature that color prominently. This looks grey in some lights, but it’s really purple.

This was for Jim for our anniversary. The wording in the center was a sticker. It’s not very readable here: it says, “As I give you my hand to hold, I give you my heart to keep.”

This was Jim’s Christmas card. I loved this frame that came with a packet of Christmas scrapbooking materials. I’m wishing I had done something a little different with the middle part of it. But he liked it. 🙂 The trees, snowflake, and words were stickers. The lamppost was in the same packet as the frame.

This was Jeremy’s. He likes foxes. The fox, trees, words, holly, and Santa hat were all stickers.

This was Jason’s, adapted from an idea seen at Pinterest. The “Noel” and a couple of the snowflakes were stickers. The song books and noses were cut out freehand. I used stencils for the snowmen bodies and heads and a hole punch for the mouths.

This was Mittu’s. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations this year with this “sweets” theme and pastel colors. I’d love to decorate for Christmas with these if they didn’t clash with the stuff I already have. The wording as well as the candies under the words were stickers.

This was Timothy’s, also adapted from a Pinterest find. It’s supposed to look like a s’more with a snowman marshmallow. The snowman was cut freehand from stick-on felt. The arms, nose, chocolate, and graham crackers were cut freehand. The words and snowflakes were stickers. The eyes and smile were made from little stick-on beads, but they didn’t stick very well to the felt. I had to use dabs of Elmer’s glue.

This was Jesse’s. For years I have gone with a tech or gamer theme for him. But he also likes medieval things. The knight was done with the Cricut, the wording with the computer.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

Exodus for You: Thrilling You with the Liberating Love of God by Tim Chester
Amy Snow by Tracy Rees. A little girl from a well-to-do family finds and brings home an abandoned baby on the family’s grounds. The girls grow up good friends though the first girl’s parents strongly disapprove, When she knows she is dying, and that Amy will likely get kicked out when she’s gone, she plans an elaborate adventure with clues to lead Amy to people who will be her friends and supporters. This was a secular story, so I disagree with a couple of things. And it moved slowly in places. But overall I enjoyed it.
My Beloved by Jan Karon, the unexpected newest in the Mitford series. Father Tim writes a love letter to his wife for Christmas, which accidentally makes it through the town before getting to her. Some of the results were comic, some touching. It’s always good to visit the folks in Mitford.
A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson. A young American woman studying to be a lawyer finds out she’s related to the king of Montovia and next in line for the throne.
The Christmas Book Flood by Roseanna M. White. Neat story about the Icelandic tradition of reading books received as gifts Christmas evening.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Davis Bunn. A young girl misses out on a longed-for family vacation at Christmas due to illness. Her grandmother tries to distract and comfort her with her own story of heartache from one Christmas after WWII when her fiance abandoned her and she was stuck in England for weeks. She helps out at an orphanage during a hepatitis outbreak and finds new meaning and purpose. Good.
Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler is an almost totally secular take on Christmas. An avid Christmas lover sets up a scavenger hunt for her boyfriend, but the wrong man finds and follows the clues. Or is he the right man after all? A very Hallmark-type Christmas story.
Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. A young boy from an orphanage insists he is not an orphan: his dad is working in a ship and will be back at Christmas. He runs away from the orphanage insisting that his sister was hiding when he was taken in. He ends up in the bushes of a young couple who try to help him, not sure whether to believe him or not. Sweet story, tying with The Christmas Flood as my favorite Christmas novella this year.
Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn by Pat Nichols. Three women arrange to meet their husbands at an inn for Christmas, but are snowed in before the husbands can get there. They learn they are not there by accident, and their worlds are about to be turned upside down. An interesting premise, but it fell a little flat to me.
The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin. Two boys obsessed with the Sears Wish Book catalog in 1951 get lessons from their mothers about giving and the true meaning of Christmas.

Most of the Christmas books were novellas, which is the only reason I got so many in this month.

I’m currently reading:

Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. I’m not liking this as much as I thought I would, but I have found a few good nuggets in it.
The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus by Daniel Darling
Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor
The Book of Hours by Davis Bunn.

I set aside James for You by Sam Allberry and The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield this month for some Advent reading. I should probably not try to read three Advent books at once, but I couldn’t decide between them.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Is God Disappointed In Me? It can feel like it when I fail Him so often. But Scripture offers comfort, instruction, hope, and examples of God’s dealings with His own who have failed.
A Plea to Older Women. Condescending memes about how our generation supposedly did things so much better are not helpful. Let’s encourage and edify younger women instead.
What Would Mary Say? People have conflicting views about the mother of Jesus, but her words in Scripture give us a clear idea of who she was.
The Wonder of God With Us. After 400 years of silence from God, after millennia of access to Him only through the OT sacrificial system, finally the promised Messiah is born. It was prophesied centuries earlier that He would be called Immanuel, God with us. What a wonder! What a privilege!
When God’s Story Crashes Into Ours. Many people’s lives were upended by Christ’s coming. And He interrupts ours as well sometimes. Will we respond with faith, acceptance, and submission?

Writing

Nothing on this front, other than the blog, as you can imagine! I hope to get back at it next month.

Looking ahead

I usually share the books I’ve read for the year and my favorites among them during this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but that will have to wait til next week.

I’m scheduled for ablations for atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation next week. I’d appreciate your prayers that all would go smoothly with no complications and that the procedures would accomplish what they are supposed to. I don’t remember how recovery went after my last ablation seven years ago except that I couldn’t lift anything heavy for a while and my heart was more erratic than usual for several weeks due to all their poking around in it. But I imagine I’ll be taking it easy for a bit.

I hope and pray for a blessed 2026 for you!

Two More Christmas Books

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Barbara Harper

The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin takes place in post-WWII America. Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are best friends who came to America after being ambulance drivers in England during the war. That story is told in If I Were You, which I have, but have not read yet.

Each of the women has a young son in kindergarten in 1951. Bobby, Audrey’s son, is quiet and reticent. Eve’s son, Harry, is outgoing and a natural leader.

When the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalogue arrives, the boys are obsessed with all the toys (as well as a dog and a daddy) that they hope Santa will bring them.

At first, Audrey and Eve are at a loss as to how to turn their sons’ attention away from their own desires and towards to the true meaning of Christmas and serving others. But gradually, ideas start coming to them.

Reading this novella without reading the book that came before it means I probably encountered a lot of spoilers. But I don’t think it will ruin my interest in the first book when I get to it.

I thought the story went in the same circles at first, but then picked up as the moms began implementing measures to help their sons.

The moms are dealing with issues of their own: Eve feeling she needs to atone for a past sin, and Audrey feeling she needs to make her own way without relying on others for help.

I’ve had the Kindle version of this for a while, but just got the audiobook via a special coupon from Audible. Once again, it was nice to go back and forth between them since they automatically synced with each other.

Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn wasn’t described as a Christmas book, though it is set in the weeks before Christmas.

In this story, three women end up at the Blue Ridge Inn at the same time. Amanda Sullivan has been married to her second husband for nine years. She knows she doesn’t love him as much as her first husband, her soul mate, who was killed in a car crash. She’s hoping this romantic get-away will revitalize their relationship.

Erica Parker fears her husband is hiding something, possibly an affair. She’s on a mission to find the truth.

Wendy Peterson is in her twenties and loves having a rich husband and the ability to buy whatever she wants. She’s pregnant with her first child and is a little immature and naive. She can’t wait for her husband to join her at the inn.

However, all three husbands are delayed by work. And then an unusual blizzard traps all three women at the inn for a couple of days. They have nothing else to do but get to know one another better.

When the snow begins to clear, they’re informed that a stranger wants to meet with them together. They learn that they are not at the inn by accident. And it’s no coincidence that none of their husbands have arrived.

What the stranger shares will turn their worlds upside down. Each woman has to decide how she will navigate the changes to her life.

I didn’t know when I started this book that it was the first in a series of six about the women. I was frustrated to find that Wendy doesn’t have her baby until the third book, and apparently the antagonist still hasn’t been dealt with by the sixth. I don’t feel inclined to read the rest of the series–at least, not any time soon. The story was compelling, but the writing didn’t really grab me. It wasn’t terrible, but it just didn’t resonate with me. I have too many other books stacked up that I really want to read to spend time with some that I am not into.

I also wasn’t sure if this was meant to be Christian fiction or not. About 80% of the way through the book, one of the women meets with her pastor, who gives her some good advice.

According to the reviews, though, lots of people love the series. So you might get more out of it than I did.

When God’s Story Crashes Into Ours

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I’m sorry, I have no “Laudable Linkage” today. I have not been online this week enough to collect any links to share. So, instead, I thought I share this impactful quote from an Advent book I am (late in) reading:

Sometimes the biggest moments in God’s plan don’t look big at all. Just one person, being faithful, speaking words that heaven whispered first.

There Joseph is, mapping out his future-maybe sketching plans for his carpentry shop, dreaming about his upcoming marriage… and then everything explodes. An angel shows up. His fiancée is pregnant. God’s asking him to raise heaven’s child.

What do you do when God’s story crashes into yours? Joseph could’ve walked away. Made sense, really. But instead… he stayed. Named the baby Jesus. Became a dad to God’s Son. Changed diapers, taught woodworking, probably worried about providing enough.

God keeps showing up in our carefully planned lives, too. Interrupting our schedules. Rearranging our priorities. Asking us to trust Him with things that don’t make sense. We get this invitation–not just to believe in Jesus, but to let Him reshape everything. Our dreams. Our fears. Our everyday moments. What if we said yes? What if we let God’s story become ours?

Not just a decision we make once. More like breathing–constant, necessary, life-giving.

From Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 26, 2025 by Barbara Harper

This has been a week overflowing with blessings. I’m sharing a few here along with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Our 46th wedding anniversary. We celebrated a couple of days early since we had other things going on the actual day. We usually go out to a nice place for dinner and exchange cards, but not presents, since it’s so close to Christmas. Last year we tried a new-to-us restaurant, and we decided to do the same this year. Even though we ended up not liking the restaurant (half the food was cold and they didn’t get the orders right), it was still fun to go out. And, on our way to the restaurant, we noticed there was a Krispy Kreme Doughnut place next door! We don’t have one near us (which is a good thing for our blood sugar levels). We bypassed the restaurant desserts to bring a couple of Krispy Kreme doughnuts home.

2. Jeremy is here! My oldest son’s first flight from RI was delayed, which caused him to miss his connecting flight and have to spend the night in a hotel. But he finally got here.

3. Family Fun Night at church. This is designed to be an informal time, something like the family at Grandma’s house, with different ones performing for the rest. Some were silly, some serious. We had vocal and piano solos, musical skits, readings, a Christmas quiz, and even a tap-dancing dad and daughter.

4. Dinner at my youngest son’s house. Usually when Jeremy is here, Jesse has us all over for dinner one night. He made some kind of Korean dish with tofu and pork belly and kimchee, I think. But he also made chicken teriyaki for those of us (mainly me) who aren’t adventurous eaters and don’t like spicy things. 🙂 Plus he made a snickerdoodle cheesecake. I’m amazed at the good cooks my sons have become. Then we played some new Jackbox games. Hear Say had us laughing.

5. Christmas. We’re so thankful the whole family could be here. We had a lovely time together all day, hearing the Christmas story from Luke 2, feasting, opening presents, most of us dozing in the afternoon, and later eating pie and playing games.

We’re staying mostly inside this day after Christmas, partly to rest, partly to avoid the craziness in stores, partly to savor the season, which went by way too fast.

How was your week? I hope you had a special Christmas.

Three Christmas Stories

Posted on December 24, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I finished one Christmas novel and two novellas recently and thought I’d share them all at once.

In Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Davis Bunn, Marissa is a teen-aged girl whose family is about to go on a longed-for trip to Hawaii for Christmas. But then Marissa gets sick with an unknown illness, so sick she can hardly stand. When she stabilizes, the family decides to go on the trip and leave Marissa with her grandmother, Emily. Emily feels the family needs the respite. And I don’t think this was ever spelled out, but since the trip was only affordable through a special sale, the family would probably not be able to get refunds on the airfare.

Marissa, as you can imagine is heart-broken and blindingly angry. She says a lot of hateful things to everyone–when she can stay awake.

Emily helps care for Marissa and then begins to tell a unknown story from her own past. During WWII, Emily had met and fell in love with a pilot. After the war, she flew to England against her parents’ wishes to marry him. But after a harrowing trip, she arrives only to find that he has gone and left her a note, breaking their engagement. He has made arrangements for her to stay in his flat under the care of his landlady until she can get back home.

The only problem is, she can’t get home. All the means of transportation are taken up by the military trying to get soldiers home.

After grieving for a few days, Emily reluctantly gets involved with the community, specifically the orphanage full of children from different countries. The government wants to send the children to a camp for displaced persons, but Emily and the local vicar fight to keep that from happening. And then an outbreak of hepatitis sweeps the orphanage.

This is a sweet story of finding meaning and purpose in the midst of heartbreak.

Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler is not Christian fiction, but the reviews assured me it was clean, and it was.

Emmie is an over-the-top fan of Christmas. Her family always loved the holiday. But since her parents died, everything about Christmas helps Emmie feel close to them.

Her boyfriend, Grant, is a busy lawyer trying to make partner. Emmie runs the community center her parents started. Their schedules are so crazy, Emmie decides to take a special vacation to Christmas Point, a Christmas-themed town three hours from Seattle. She prepares a scavenger hunt that will lead Grant to the inn where they are staying. The clues start with a present Emmie left with the doorman at Grant’s condo.

But then the present gets delivered to the wrong guy, Sam. He’s a best-selling writer who has been stuck ever since his sister passed away. He thinks the present is from his agent, Candace, to help revive his Christmas spirit. Delighted, he follows the clues only to find, not Candace, but Emmie.

Emmie is devastated that her perfect plans went so awry. She loses all interest in the special dinner she had planned. But, since Grant can’t get away, the inn’s owner encourages Emmie and Sam not to let the dinner go to waste.

As Grant remains glued to his job, Sam is so delighted with the town, he decides to stay for a few days. At first he and Emmie keep running into each other as she participates in some of the activities she had planned to do with Grant. Emmie finds Sam loves Christmas as much as she does. And maybe he’s right about a more laid-back and less scheduled approach to life. And maybe he’s not the wrong guy after all . . .

This book took a thoroughly secular approach to Christmas. But it was a nice story with a Hallmark feel. In fact, the author has written a couple of successful Netflix and Hallmark films (which I have not seen).

Waiting for Christmas: A Story of Hope and the Best Gift of All by Lynn Austin involves characters from her earlier novel, All My Secrets. In that book, Addy was from a wealthy Gilded Age family, but when her grandfather died, the bulk of the estate went to a male heir. Addy had a trust fund left to her. Over the course of the novel, her grandmother convinces her that the excess the family had lived with for years was wasteful. It was better to live a useful live than an empty one of balls and society gossip. Addy married a young lawyer she fell in love with at the end of that book.

In this novella, Addy and Howard have been married about a month. Addy wants to be economical and learn to cook and keep house. Howard assures her that her gifts are better used in the suffrage movement she is active in as well as her charitable pursuits. He’s secretly afraid she will miss the high society life she came from.

Addy comes home one day to find a small, dirty boy, Jack, hiding in the bushes in front of her house. She coaxes him in. He had been looking for her mother, who had visited his orphanage earlier. He insists he is not an orphan. His father is on a ship which is due back at Christmas. When his mother died, their landlord called the authorities, who took him to an orphanage. But his three-year-old sister was hiding and never brought to the same orphanage.

Addy and Howard take the child in and try to help him find his sister as well as learn something about his father. Was his father on a ship, or had he abandoned the family? Did he truly have a sister, or was she imaginary?

Addy’s family’s foundation already supported a few orphanages. But as Addy visits others while looking for Jack’s sister, she’s appalled at their conditions. She’s equally upset to learn that many of the children are not true orphans, but have been left by mothers too poor to care for them. She insists that the suffrage movement was more than a fight for women’s right to vote, but a means of advocating for better conditions for women, better wages, and respectable opportunities to earn a living. But the need is so great.

This was another sweet story with several layers for a novella. Along with the search for Jack’s family and Addy and Howard’s adjustments to marriage and each other, it explores the truth that help doesn’t necessarily come from grand efforts at saving the day, but in small acts of kindness to those God places in our path.

All three of these were audiobooks, but I either had the Kindle version already, or found it for a couple of dollars. It’s nice when that happens. I love being able to go from reading to listening and back, depending on circumstances. The narrator for the first book was a little annoying, but not enough to set the audio aside. The other two were great.

These books all were a nice way to enhance my Christmas spirit and celebrations.

The Wonder of God with Us

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Barbara Harper

One of the verses shared most often during the Christmas season is Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

700 years after this was written, an angel quotes it to Joseph when he reassures him that Mary has not been unfaithful; the baby she is carrying is the Son of God (Matthew 1:18-25). Matthew then goes on to explain that “Immanuel” means “God with us.”

We’re so familiar with that passage and that truth, it’s easy for us to just breeze past them. But if we trace God’s interaction with His people through the Bible, we see what a wonder it is that God went to such great lengths to be with people that neglected and rejected Him.

God was with His people in full fellowship and harmony in the garden of Eden. But then they sinned and were sent out of the garden. Sin separates from God. He is always omnipresent, everywhere at all times. But that personal, harmonious fellowship was broken.

When God freed Israel from Egypt, He gave Moses plans for the tabernacle so that God could dwell among His people. But they had to come God’s way, through the sacrifices He commanded. The veil of the tabernacle, and later the temple, separated everyone from the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could enter there once a year on the day of atonement.

Then, thousands of years later, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among” His people (John 1:14). The Lord of glory came to a poor family in a humble dwelling. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4).

When Jesus died for our sin, the veil of the temple was supernaturally ripped in two. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”

He made a way for people to be reconciled to Him through Christ. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:1-2). What an amazing gift–that we have access to God directly through Jesus by faith.

He dwells with the humble: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite'” (Isaiah 57:15).

He is with us in life’s challenges: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

He is with us in anxiety: “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5b-7).

He is with us in trouble: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2).

He is with us in joy: “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. . . You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:8,11).

He is with us to provide for us: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).

He is with us at the end, if we know Him: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me”( Psalm 23:4). Then we’ll be “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” once again in full fellowship unhindered by a sin nature (2 Corinthians 5:8).

An old song said God is watching us from a distance. No, He is very close. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). Because Jesus was God’s Son, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again, we can be forgiven, redeemed, close to Him. In overcoming and need, in anxiety and danger, in everyday life and our walk with God, and finally in death, we can rest and rejoice in the fact that God is with us.

C. H. Spurgeon wrote a wonderful poem titled “Immanuel” at the age of 18:

When once I mourned a load of sin;
When conscience felt a wound within;
When all my works were thrown away;
When on my knees I knelt to pray,
Then, blissful hour, remembered well,
I learned Thy love, Immanuel.

When storms of sorrow toss my soul;
When waves of care around me roll;
When comforts sink, when joys shall flee;
When hopeless griefs shall gape for me,
One word the tempest’s rage shall quell–
That word, Thy name, Immanuel.

When for the truth I suffer shame;
When foes pour scandal on my name;
When cruel taunts and jeers abound;
When “Bulls of Bashan” gird me round,
Secure within Thy tower I’ll dwell–
That tower, Thy grace, Immanuel.

When hell enraged lifts up her roar;
When Satan stops my path before;
When fiends rejoice and wait my end;
When legioned hosts their arrows send,
Fear not, my soul, but hurl at hell
Thy battle-cry, Immanuel.

When down the hill of life I go;
When o’er my feet death’s waters flow;
When in the deep’ning flood I sink;
When friends stand weeping on the brink,
I’ll mingle with my last farewell
Thy lovely name, Immanuel.

When tears are banished from mine eye;
When fairer worlds than these are nigh;
When heaven shall fill my ravished sight;
When I shall bathe in sweet delight,
One joy all joys shall far excel,
To see Thy face, Immanuel.

Immanuel–God with us. I pray you know Him today and rejoice that He is not a God far off, but One who dwells right here with us.