“Deep roots are not reached by the frost”

Posted on February 8, 2026 by Barbara Harper

When I was looking for winter inspiration last week, I came across a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien from The Fellowship of the Ring. It’s a riddle Bilbo Baggins wrote for Frodo to help him find the real Strider. But one line in particular caught my eye.

This is the first half of the riddle:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

If you’re like me, you might’ve read the first line as the familiar saying adapted from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice: “All that glisters is not gold.”

Tolkien flips it. The king they are looking for in LOTR isn’t “glittering” in his kingly accouterments yet. (Does that sound like someone else you know?)

But that’s not the line that arrested me. What stopped me in my tracks was this: “Deep roots are not reached by the frost.“

Trees that aren’t evergreens look dead in the winter, don’t they? They have no leaves or fruit. They are barren for many months. They might lose limbs to ice or heavy snow.

In fact, releasing their autumn leaves helps protect them from harsh, freezing conditions. If trees kept their leaves all winter, they might lose more limbs from the extra weight when iced over. Insects would eat more of their vegetation. Since water expands when frozen, cells in leaves would rupture in freezing temperatures.

Some of the trees that fall over in bad weather have shallow or damaged roots.

But if roots are firm and deep enough, trees withstand the winter. They not only survive: they sprout new leaves when spring comes. They grow. They flourish.

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

When we go through a spiritual winter, we might feel leafless and fruitless. Jesus said branches are pruned in order that they might bear more fruit. Sometimes new growth comes only when parts are cut away–not just old, diseased parts, but branches that look perfectly fine.

Jesus said a person whose heart is like rocky ground “endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:21).

But if we’re deeply rooted in Christ, winters won’t destroy us.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7).

When we’re rooted in Him, we know His character. We can trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is doing.

When we’re rooted in Him, we’re firm in our identity. We’re His children. We’re forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, known, loved.

When we’re rooted and built up in Him, we’re established in the faith. We won’t be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14).

We stand firmly no matter what storms are raging around us, no matter how deep the frost, no matter what losses we face. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9:

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed.”

May we walk as we received Him, humbly, dependent on Him and not ourselves. May we be so rooted and built up in Him that no frost can reach our roots.

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

Winter Inspiration

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I know a few people who love winter. Very few. 🙂 It’s not my favorite season. The stretch from mid-February to the first signs of spring are the hardest for me.

To try to combat negative thoughts about this season, I looked for some inspiration–Bible verses, quotes, poems, and songs that share a better perspective on winter. I collected some to share with you.

Bible verses

He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. –Psalm 147:16-17.

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! –Psalm 148:7-8.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. –Psalm 51:7:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” –Isaiah 1:18.

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters. –Proverbs 25:13.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11.

Quotes

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood. –John Burroughs

Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory. —Richard Sibbes

Our winters shall not frown for ever; summer shall soon smile. The tide will not eternally ebb out; the floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls; the sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings. – ‘The Lord turned again to the captivity of Job.’ Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them. –Spurgeon

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. –Edith Sitwell

One kind word can warm three winter months. –Japanese Proverb

Poems

One of the most famous poems set in winter is “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, which can be read here.

An excerpt from “November” in A Child’s Calendar by John Updike:

The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The loss of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
Nevertheless,
Displays a certain
Loveliness –

The beauty of the bone.

An excerpt from “Winter Morning” by Alexander Pushkin:

The snow below the bluish skies,
Like a majestic carpet lies,
And in the light of day it shimmers.
The woods are dusky. Through the frost
The greenish fir-trees are exposed;
And under ice, a river glitters.

“Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

“The Winter Evening” is a long poem that’s part of an even longer poem in six “books” titled “The Task” by William Cowper. Here are just a few lines from it:

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,

Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,

And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn

Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,

That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,

So let us welcome peaceful ev’ning in.

Speaking of winter:

I crown thee King of intimate delights,

Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,

And all the comforts that the lowly roof

Of undisturb’d retirement, and the hours

Of long uninterrupted evening, know.

Songs

There are fun songs, like “Winter Wonderland,” Let It Snow,” and “Snow” from the film White Christmas. Then there are these meaningful ones.

“In the Bleak Midwinter”

“The Snow Lay on the Ground”

“See, Amid the Winter Snow”

“Whiter Than Snow”

“Winter Song,” also seen as “Tis Winter Now.” This one was new to me. The author was Samuel Longfellow, brother of Henry Wadsworth. I wouldn’t agree with his general theology, but this song was lovely.

Are you feeling more kindly disposed to winter now? I’m still eager for it to get over and for spring to come. But winter has its beauties as well.

Bearing With Small Trials

Posted on February 1, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I’ve never chosen a word for the year–I’ve often said that God has much more to say to me than one word. 🙂

But a phrase that has come to mind often these last weeks is “bear up.” I can get down and whiny over not feeling well or first world problems or barren winter landscapes or several overcast days in a row or a number of other relatively minor things. I often have a harder time with these smaller trials than with the big ones. It’s almost instinctive to turn to the Lord in a major crisis and ask His grace and help. But I stumble over everyday troubles.

Yet every day can’t be sunshine and roses. We live in a fallen world. As Longfellow said in “The Rainy Day,” “Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.”

God has said all through Scripture to expect suffering, and He tells us He uses it for our spiritual growth.

Overcast days and long winters aren’t really suffering. Sure, they can affect one’s outlook. There is such a thing as Seasonal Affective Disorder. But my “winter blues” aren’t to that extreme and can’t really compare to cancer and chemo or persecution.

Proverbs 24:10 comes to mind: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”

Yes, it is. And if it’s so small in these minor issues, what’s it going to be when a major crisis comes my way?

The second stanza in Amy Carmichael’s poem, “Make Me Thy Fuel,” says:

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified;
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Softening things? Easy choices? That’s my jam. I am not soldiery. I am a wimp.

So I feel the need to learn to “bear up” under the everyday trials of life–both to be a better testimony and to become more resilient when bigger hardships happen.

I like the NKJV translation of 2 Timothy 2:3: “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

I don’t think enduring hardship means being stoic. David was a soldier, but he poured out his heart in the psalms.

Nor do we need to deny our pain or frustration or sadness, large or small. A broken toe may not hurt as much as a crushed leg, but it does hurt. However, we need God’s perspective on our trials.

Enduring hardship doesn’t mean we can’t pray or that we deal with the small stuff and only go to God with the big things. We’re told to “[cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, emphasis mine).

But we can “[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

We can pray to be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11).

Both of those last two verses mentioned joy. What joy? The joy that someday, all trials and pain and suffering of any size will be over (Revelation 21:4). The joy that no matter what we go through, God is with His children (Isaiah 43:2). The joy that He provides help, strength, and grace (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). The joy that He uses trials to test our faith and perfect us (James 1:2-4).

In an older book titled Formula for Family Unity, Walter and Trudy Fremont shared an example of a mother trying to help her son as he gets ready to go out in the cold to do his paper route. She had an overly sympathetic attitude, saying, “Oh, honey, it’s so cold out there; I’m afraid you’ll freeze on your paper route.” The son then felt sorry for himself for having to go out in the cold. They suggest it would be better for the mother to say, “When you finish your paper route, I’ll have a cup of hot chocolate waiting and a good breakfast” (pp. 103-104). She acknowledges that his job is cold and hard, but in a way that braces him to face it.

We, too, can reframe how we think about the things that get us down. Cold, grey winter days? God is still working even through dormancy. Hard freezes reduce the number of bugs that show up in summer. I can work on inside projects or curl up with a book and a blanket.

Minor illnesses that reduce my energy for a few days? How often have I wished I could stop the normal routine and rest or read or engage in quiet activities. Here’s the perfect opportunity.

Several overcast days in a row? They make me appreciate sunshine even more. I can keep busy with pleasant or useful occupations or play uplifting music rather than focus on the grey skies.

One reason God allows trials in our lives is to draw our attention and foster our dependence on Him. I can all too easily feel sorry for myself and then feed my self-pity. Instead, I need to preach God’s truth to myself and rely on His grace and strength.

May “God . . . who comforts the downcast,” “who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Corinthians 7:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).

(Just to be clear: I am not trying to make light of anything anyone is going through, or to say “Just grin and bear it.” I’m sharing my thought process about my own tendency to maximize smaller trials.)

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

Plug In or Abide?

Posted on January 25, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Most of us have devices we have to recharge: a cell phone, a smart watch, iPads, earbuds, electronic cars, etc. Packing lists for travel include cords and cables for charging. We seek outlets in airport terminals to charge up until our next flight. The threat of storms and power outages causes us to make sure all our devices are charged just in case.

Some of this technological language has filtered into other areas of life. We talk of rest and rejuvenation as needing to recharge our batteries. We say we need to “plug into” some community or power source.

Some might even think of their time in the Bible and prayer as a spiritual recharge. But Joni Eareckson Tada challenges that thought in her devotional book, Spectacle of Glory. In the reading for November 4, she writes that we don’t “sit down for our quiet time and ask ourselves, How long do I have to be plugged into God today to get a good spiritual charge?” She expands that thought by saying:

We don’t get charged up in God in order to unplug and live on our own–until it’s time for the next charge. No. We never disconnect from Him. We are living branches connected to the living Christ. His life is our life.

Instead of plugging in, we abide in Him, as Jesus said in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

In one of the best definitions for abiding that I have read, Joni says:

Abiding is living in constant awareness of total dependence on Jesus. It involves a constant flow of life-giving sap from the Holy Spirit–not a spiritual charge that takes us up to 80 percent. Abiding in Christ is a 100 percent relationship.

We’re placed in Christ when we believe on Him, and that connection is never severed. But we don’t always consciously think about depending on Jesus.

How do we cultivate that awareness of our dependence on Him? Well, trying to do anything in our own strength will often cause us to fall flat, reminding us we need His strength.

Jesus goes on in John 15 to talk about prayer and His words abiding in us. We don’t confine prayer and Bible reading to our devotional time and then go off on our own. Psalm 1 talks about meditating on God’s instruction day and night. Isaiah 26:3 says “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” We can talk with Him all through the day. We think about His Word as we make decisions and go about our work, asking Him for help and wisdom in knowing how to apply what He has said.

Then we demonstrate our love to Him by obeying His Word. It’s not that we keep His commandments to try to earn His love. We come to Him for salvation because we can’t keep all His commandments all the time. But when He saves us, we value what He says and we seek His strength to obey Him because we love Him.

Once we believe on Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we’re a branch connected to His vine. His life flows through us. He doesn’t charge us up and then send us off to live independently til we need another charge. We don’t have to worry about becoming disconnected to Him. He’s always with us, constantly empowering us to live for Him. But we abide in Him when we lean into that relationship and depend on Him.

Jesus saying that we can do nothing without Him reminds me of these stanzas from Frances Ridley Havergal’s lovely hymn, “I Could Not Do Without Thee“

I could not do without thee,
O Saviour of the lost,
whose precious blood redeemed me
at such tremendous cost;
thy righteousness, thy pardon,
thy precious blood, must be
my only hope and comfort,
my glory and my plea.

I could not do without thee,
I cannot stand alone,
I have no strength or goodness,
no wisdom of my own;
but thou, belovèd Saviour,
art all in all to me,
and weakness will be power
if leaning hard on thee.

May He teach us all to abide more consciously and fully in Him.

(Revised from the archives)

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

Dealing with Distractions During Prayer

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Barbara Harper

If you’re like me, settling down to pray triggers all kinds of distractions. It’s not so much that other people interrupt me, though that happens occasionally. The problem is usually in my own mind going a dozen different directions.

Here are some practices that have helped me:

Allow for quiet time during the day. I think one reason our thoughts scatter so much is that we don’t often have quiet time to just think any more. If I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen, I turn the Christian radio station on. If I am driving or getting ready for the day, I listen to music or an audiobook. All of those things can be edifying in themselves. But especially if you are an internal processor like me, your mind needs time to think things through. So allowing for some quiet thinking time during the day helps our thoughts not to go so far afield when we sit down to pray.

Keep a notepad nearby. If I suddenly remember an item I need to add to the grocery list or a blog idea or an appointment I need to make while I am praying, I jot it down to take care of when I am done. That way my mind isn’t struggling to remember those things while also praying. You could also use the notes app on your phone, if the phone itself wouldn’t be a distraction.

Deal with your phone. You may want to silence your phone, depending on whether someone might need to get in touch with you. I have some prayer prompts on my phone, but otherwise I put it in my pocket or turn it face down on my desk. I have most notifications turned off anyway because I don’t like my phone dinging all day. I check my email and social media often enough that I don’t need my phone to tell me every time something comes through for me.

Pray out loud. Depending on whether or not I am alone, praying aloud or in a whisper can keep me focused.

Walk or do something active while praying. Sitting with head bowed and eyes closed makes some of us sleepy. I know many people who like to pray when they take a walk.

Integrate prayer with Bible reading. We often divide prayer and reading into two separate activities. But we can pray as we read. When we come to a passage about praise, we can praise the Lord right then. If something from the Bible convicts us, we can confess that o the Lord immediately and ask for His help.

Use prayer lists. I didn’t always like prayer lists. I felt that if prayer is just talking to my Father, then wouldn’t it seem weird to bring Him a list instead of just talking to Him normally? But then I realized I do use lists when I talk to people. I always jot down things I want to discuss with the doctor before I see him. I might even do the same before calling or FaceTiming my son–even though we can text or email, some things that are better discussed when we’re actually talking. I think God knows our frailties and doesn’t mind if we use aids to prayer.

Pray throughout the day. In my early Christian life, I felt like I hadn’t officially prayed for something unless I prayed about it during my devotional time. But that can result in a ridiculously long prayer list. Plus I might forget a request I heard during the day. Now I try to pray for a request immediately when I hear or see it. With all our other relationships, we have shorter conversations throughout the day and then longer, one-on-one times. It can be that way with the Lord, too: we don’t have to confine all our prayer to our devotional time.

Divide up requests. Some people pray for their country one day, their church another day, their family another day, missionaries one day, and so on. Others pray through their church directory a few people at a time.

Use prayer prompts. I like to use Scriptural prayers to start off my prayer time. Most often I use what we call “the Lord’s prayer.” For instance, I might start, “Our Father . . . Thank you for being My Father. Thanks for making me Your child. Thank you for giving us a picture of a loving Father and child to understand your care of us.” And I go through the rest of that prayer in like manner.

I also like to use prayers like Paul’s in Colossians 1:9-12 or Ephesians 3:14-19 for myself and others. I’ve made a list of them in my notes app as I have found them.

Though I am not quite as fond of prayer acronyms, I did find them helpful in keeping me focused when I first started praying. One is PRAY:

Pray
Repent
Ask
Yield

Another is ACTS:

Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication

Confess and carry on. When I find my thoughts miles away while praying, I just usually say, “I’m sorry, Lord,” and get back to it. Sometimes the thing my mind runs to is something to stop and pray about.

Let distractions remind us of our need. Elisabeth Elliot once wrote in A Lamp For My Feet:

Distractions can be useful. They provide constant reminders of our human weakness. We recognize in them how earthbound we are, and then how completely we must depend on the help of the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us. We are shown, by a thousand trivialities, how trivial are our concerns. The very effort to focus, even for a minute, on higher things, is foiled, and we see that prayer–the prerequisite for doing anything for God–cannot be done without Him. We are not, however, left to fend for ourselves. The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness.

What about when people distract us? Jesus faced that as well. He took care to pray alone at night or early in the morning, but people still found Him and interrupted Him. A Sunday School teacher from years ago once said that when someone called his home during family devotions, he wanted to answer the phone by saying, “Do you realize you’re being used of the devil right now?” But Jesus never responded in such a way when His time with His Father was interrupted. He always responded graciously. It is taking me a long time to learn that God is over even our interruptions.

I think one of the most important things to remember about prayer is that it is not a performance or a ritual. We’re talking to our loving Father when we pray. We can lay our hearts bare in all our humanness and imperfection, knowing He loves us and wants what is best for us.

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

Thanksgiving in Unexpected Places

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Barbara Harper

During and after Thanksgiving several weeks ago, I began to notice thanksgiving in places in the Bible where it’s easy to overlook. I jotted down some notes, thinking I might write about this next autumn. But then I thought–why not now? Though we emphasize Thanksgiving in November, we’re supposed to be thankful year-round. Plus, a thankful post now would go along with the theme of thanksgiving in unexpected places.

One such passage was 1 Timothy 2:1-2: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

We understand the need to pray for our authorities. But thanksgiving? Even for the ones I didn’t vote for, the ones whose ideology is opposite mine?*

I understand that Nero was the ruler when Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. How could anyone be thankful for Nero?

I imagine that even a bad dictator is better than total anarchy. The Bible says God “removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21) and “It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75:7). Scripture gives numerous examples of God working through rulers who didn’t know Him or follow His ways.

We can be thankful that, no matter who is in charge, God ultimately rules. We can respect someone’s authority even if we can’t respect them personally.

Another unexpected mention of giving thanks is in a passage we normally turn to 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 4:3b-7).

It’s natural to pray in troubling situations. But when we’re anxious, one of the last things on our minds is thankfulness. Yet we can be thankful that “The Lord is at hand,” He loves us, He knows the best outcome and course of action, and He has the power to answer and keep us. Thanksgiving reminds us how He has answered prayer and delivered us in the past and encourages our faith to trust Him for present and future concerns.

It’s also hard to be thankful when we’re in pain. Pain can become all-absorbing. But David writes, “I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:29-30). David goes on to say in verse 32, “When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.” Thanksgiving revives and encourages us as well as others. Gratefulness acknowledges that God has a purpose even in suffering (Romans 5:1-5).

Another surprising place to see thanksgiving mentioned is Romans 1. Paul details mankind’s downward spiral, resulting in God’s judgment. A lack of thankfulness (verse 21) is listed in the passage along with idolatry, slander, deceit, faithlessness, hatred toward God, and more. Paul’s letter to Timothy lists characteristics of people in the last days, including lack of gratefulness, as well as selfishness, pride, and disobedience (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Is a lack of thankfulness as bad as all those other things? Apparently so.

Thanking God for who He is and what He has done and given is a way to acknowledge that all we have comes from Him. It keeps us from pride and from feeling entitled. “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:23).

What a gracious Lord we have. He doesn’t “need” our thanks, though He deserves it. He’s not feeding His ego by desiring our thanks and praise. He wants us to be thankful to encourage us to keep our eyes on Him, to trust Him for all we need, to keep us on track and away from self-dependence or idolatry.

I am reminded and encouraged to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)–not just in November, but every day; not just in good times, but in every situation.

* I am not thinking of specific examples here and don’t want to get into any political debates. I will not publish comments containing political rants.

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

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.)

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.)

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.

(Revised from the archives)

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

What Would Mary Say?

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is called the “favored one” and “blessed among women” in Luke 1. She’s such a wonderful example of someone wholly yielding to the Lord even though His plans for her would drastically affect her life.

As blessed and favored as Mary is, some go beyond what the Bible says to elevate her to a position almost alongside Jesus. What would Mary say about that?

We only have a few of her words recorded in Scripture, but I think they reveal a firm grasp of who she was.

She’s not sinless. A Christmas special we watched posited that because Mary didn’t have original sin, she might not have experienced labor pains. Yet the Bible doesn’t portray her as sinless. Jesus is the only person who was born without a sin nature and who never sinned once. Mary said, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 2:47), acknowledging her own need for a Savior.

She is not the one we pray to. I suppose some might get the idea of praying to Mary from the incident where Jesus and his family attended a wedding where the wine ran out. Mary went to Jesus and told Him of the problem. He eventually turned water into wine, even though He told her his “hour has not yet come” (John 2:1-12). Some have taken from this scene the idea that we can go to Mary to get her to persuade Jesus to meet our needs.

Yet the Bible doesn’t advocate praying to anyone but God. Even here, Mary was not asked to appeal to Jesus for help.

Even in Mary’s prayer in Luke 1:46-55, her emphasis is on magnifying the Lord.

The Old Testament emphasized that we don’t have access to God except through the sacrificial system He gave to Israel. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple, which was a barrier only the high priest could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, was torn from the top to the bottom. Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “Therefore, brothers, since 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, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have direct access to God! As blessed and wonderful as Mary is, why would we try to go through her (which the Bible never tells us to do) when we can go directly to Him?

In the last scene where we see Mary in the Bible, she is with the other disciples of Jesus, male and female, after His ascension back into heaven. Acts 1:12-14 shows them “with one accord . . . devoting themselves to prayer.” She wasn’t being prayed to: she was praying along with them to God.

Mary’s last recorded words. The last thing that the Bible tells us Mary said was to the servants at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Her emphasis is always on Him. Do what He says. She claims no authority for herself. Even with Jesus’ followers in Acts, the disciples are in leadership, not Mary.

There’s much we can admire and emulate about Mary. Her humility. Her faith. Her willingness to do God’s will. Her grasp of God’s truth shown in her prayer. Her tendency to treasure and ponder in her heart things that occurred when Jesus was born. Her faithfully standing by Him during His crucifixion.

But she wouldn’t want us to worship her or elevate her to the same, or nearly the same, status as her Son. She would want us to honor, believe in, and glorify Him.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our mediator. He is the one who changes us as we behold Him. He is our peace. In Him is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Let’s proclaim along with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47).