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.

(Revised from the archives)

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on December 20, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I haven’t been online much this week, but I did find these thought-provoking reads:

You Are in the Circumstances in Which You Can Best Serve. “While it is no sin—and may in fact be very good—to pray for such circumstances to change, we must always understand that God’s calling upon us is to serve him in our current circumstances, no matter what they are. We are to be faithful in what is, not in what we wish could be, to be faithful in his reality rather than in our dreams.”

Singing Through Christmas in Major and Minor Keys. “Even at Christmas when it seems everyone around us is jolly, Christ loves to hear our lament. It is good and right to grieve the pain caused by sin. What better time than Christmas to remember that He entered into our suffering and sympathizes with our struggles because He endured them as well (Heb. 4:15). Yet He provides hope in hard times: though He came once as a baby to deliver, He will return as the divine warrior to rescue us again.”

Light in the Darkness, HT to Story Warren. “In a good story, the characters’ growth so often comes through experiencing struggle, danger, fear, and even evil while steadfastly refusing to let those things win. These stories can inspire our own resolve, pushing us forward in our own growth in the face of trial.”

Using AI for Bible Study Misses the Point of Bible Study. “Bible study should produce new and renewed people, not merely people who are smarter or more informed. This happens in application, but observation and interpretation are not incidental . . . We are far better equipped to apply a passage after studying it ourselves instead of reading a summary.”

Stuff . . ., HT to Story Warren. “All of these things and many others make our house home, and homey, but they do take up space. There are times when I wonder why I hang on to them, or I realize the empty value of stuff in light of a finite life.”

“Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world.
The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son.
The only requirement is to believe in Him.
The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.”
—Corrie Ten Boom

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 19, 2025 by Barbara Harper

It’s been a busy week, but a good one. I’m just a little behind where I wanted to be with Christmas preparations, but God has blessed with health and energy and productive days.

Thanks so much to those who prayed for my lower back pain. It’s not 100% yet, but it is much improved. I’m still moving carefully so I don’t set it off again.

I’m counting more blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Protection. My next-to-youngest sister was in a car accident this week. Another driver cut too close when passing another car and hit my sister’s car from behind, causing it to spin around and then flip over. Miraculously, she walked away from the wreck with no serious injuries–just soreness from the seat belts and being thrown around. The other driver did not stop, but other people did. One got the offending driver’s license tag number. We assumed the driver who caused the accident didn’t have insurance since they didn’t stop, but they did, and someone filed a claim the next day. So hopefully the legal/financial stuff won’t be a hassle. But mainly I am so thankful she was okay–especially after seeing photos of the car smashed and upside down.

2. Flowers.Jim bought these for me last week, and they still look lovely. They’ve opened beautifully.

3. A timely arrival. We had ordered something for my oldest son on Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. It was a large item, so we had it shipped to his place in RI for an early Christmas present instead of shipping it here for Christmas and then to his address. It didn’t show a shipping time during the ordering process, but afterward I got a notice of an almost two week time span it could be delivered–and part of that time, he was going to be here rather than there. We figured, between neighbors and friends coming to feed his cat, someone would bring it in. But I was still concerned about it. I was relieved to hear it arrived while he was still home.

4. Back to church. I mentioned being thankful for live streaming services last week. But it’s especially good to be able to be back in the services and Bible study.

5. Christmas music .BBN Radio plays Christmas music throughout December, and I have a good collection on my phone. I’ve enjoyed listening while wrapping presents, making cards for the family, and puttering in the kitchen.

I hope you have a good week and a very special Christmas!

Review: My Beloved

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Jan Karon’s last book in her beloved Mitford series was published in 2017 and was supposed to be the end of the series. But she began to play around with an old short story idea, and eventually came up with My Beloved.

The premise of the story is that Father Tim, an Episcopal priest and the main character, has been told by his wife that all she wants for Christmas is a love letter. In a moment of inspiration, he bares his heart on paper. He also buys her a book of poetry, tucks the letter inside, and wraps them.

But then the letter and book go missing. After tracing his steps and racking his brain, he still can’t find them or come up with any ideas about where they could be. He tries a few times to write another, but just can’t get it to sound like the first one did.

Meanwhile, the letter and book get accidentally passed to various Mitford characters. Sometimes the result is comic, sometimes touching.

There are a few subplots running through the book. One involves Hope, owner of the Happy Endings book store, and the financial difficulties threatening the store. Former Mayor Esther Cunningham and her husband are aging and fussing with their “bossy” daughters over what they can and can’t do.

Dooley made an appearance in the first Mitford book as a “throwaway” boy who comes under Father Tim’s influence and, over the course of the series, eventually becomes his adopted son. Though the Mitford books are generally “cozy” reads, they don’t shy away from serious issues. Dooley’s mother had been an alcoholic who gave away some of her children for drink. Though she has become sober and even become a Christian, and all her children have been found, there are still underlying issues and pains blocking healing and relationships.

This book was structured a little differently, rotating the point of view with each chapter. I loved how the dialect instantly let us know which “voice” was speaking, even though the subject’s name was the name of the chapter.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Father Tim: “God’s love for his children wasn’t just for them to have and to hold, it was to freely, spontaneously give away—and to gratefully receive from others.”

Esther: “She was already surprised, thank you. Surprised by bein’ old as dirt; surprised by losin’ her scatter rugs; an’ surprised by goin’ from a mayor everybody voted for to an old woman whose car battery died months ago from sittin’ in th’ garage with a mouse nest under th’ hood.”

Cynthia: “Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.”

Esther: “A recliner was a drug, an’ she was overdosin’.”

Ray: “He would consider it a freebie for old people. I’m not goin’ there.” Esther: “Freebies for old people is exactly where I’m goin’.”

Esther: “At their age, surprises were not a good idea in th’ first place. You could keel over from a surprise.”

Helene: “With war raging around the world and suffering everywhere, how extraordinary, how beautiful this life could be. There were no words, really. No words.”

Father Tim: “There was only one person in the world who would really get what just happened. Thank God he was married to her.”

Father Tim: “Even now, that tribe is splitting apart, that one small wounded fragment is scattering in all directions, nursing their wounds, reluctant to give up anything so darkly familiar as their wounds, and headed to places from which they may not find their way back.”

Father Tim: “Why invite more pain into a family raised on pain? Because pain can serve as a passageway to joy. It’s that dark tunnel that goes through a mountain and dumps us out on the other side where the light is.”

I’ve seen reviews of Christian fiction that complain over the least mention of any religious content. So I have always marveled that these books so full of gospel truth have been so popular with the general public. Oh, I wouldn’t agree with every little point. But the great majority of these books are spot on.

Reading a Mitford book is like a visit back to one’s hometown. It was good to catch up with various characters and their situations.

Updated to add: Jan was interviewed on CBS This Morning recently:

Review: The Christmas Book Flood

Posted on December 16, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Jolabokaflod is an Icelandic tradition that translates to “Christmas Book Flood.” It began in 1944 near the end of WWII. Iceland was occupied by the Americans, and their willingness to spend money in town and help arrange for exports of the country’s fish helped Iceland become a little more prosperous than many European nations occupied by Germany.

But many items were still in short supply due to rationing. Icelanders were already great readers and storytellers, but this particular year, books were the main gifts. A tradition began Christmas night of people reading the books they had gotten for Christmas, often while enjoying hot chocolate. Sounds like a great idea to me!

Roseanna M. White has set her novella, The Christmas Book Flood, in this time and place.

Tatiana Eliasdottir is her uncle’s assistant at his publishing house. Tatiana’s sister calls to ask if she can send her seven-year-old daughter for the holidays. Her sister is having difficulties in her pregnancy, and has lost several unborn babies. Her sister’s husband has injured his leg and is out of work. They felt their daughter, Elea, needed a brighter, happier setting for Christmas. Tatiana agrees to host Elea. At first the girl is disconsolate over not being home for Christmas. But getting into some of the traditions and learning she’ll be able to go to work with Tatiana, where her favorite author, Anders Johannsson, also works, begins to lift her spirits.

Author, illustrator, and editor Anders and his secretary agree to help Tatiana watch Elea when Tatiana can’t be at her desk. Tatiana has liked Anders for a while, but he is so shy and quiet and easily flustered that it’s hard to talk much with him.

Anders’ personality tends toward quietness, but he is also that way because he feels like a misfit. His brothers are all hardy, big, strapping fishermen who make fun of him for his shyness and bookish ways.

A true part of the story deals with the publishing companies teaming to form a “Book Bulletin” sent to every home.. The results were so successful–a flood of orders–that they weren’t sure they would be able to fill the orders before Christmas.

Another part deals with Tatiana and Anders getting to know one another and overcoming their misconceptions.

Woven in with the plot was some Icelandic folklore. They don’t have Saint Nicholas, but they do have the “Yule lads“–Troll brothers who take turns visiting in December and leaving gifts in shoes if they find everything to their liking.

This was a delightful novella. I knew very little about Iceland and its traditions and folklore. Then the plot was so different from many Christmas novellas. And, though there’s a slow romance, the book is not at all cheesy. The characters have things to learn and ways to grow along the way.

There were a couple of anachronisms–I don’t know if they talked about “patriarchal” expectations of women then, or “fighting the patriarchy”–at least not in those terms.

Happily, this audiobook did include the author’s notes about the inspiration and research for this book.

I listened to the audiobook, nicely read by Talon David. The only negative to listening was I had no idea what some of the Icelandic terms and names looked like. But there was usually enough explanation that I understood what was going on.