Back in August, my husband caught me humming, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Although James loves Christmas, he’s more of a put-the-tree-up-after-Thanksgiving guy. His brows arched. “Are you humming what I think you’re humming?”
I held up my hands and grinned. “That’s what you get for having a wife who sings in the choir.” He had the song stuck in his head a day later. You’re welcome.
My fellow musicians understand that Christmas practice begins about the time Hobby Lobby puts up its holiday décor—or way too early for most people. For vocalists and crafters, though, we need this time to prepare, to anticipate the season that’s coming.
But how do you anticipate a season if you’re dreading it? For some, this year has been full of blessings, but for many, it’s been one challenge after another. I feel you. This year has been a mixed bag for me.
The secret is that anticipating Christmas doesn’t depend on our circumstances. Let me draw on a few more lyrics to illustrate.
A Thrill of Hope, a Weary World Rejoices
Weariness is nothing new. When Jesus was born into this world, the Jewish people longed for a Messiah, someone they believed would overthrow the Romans and establish his own rule. Many missed out on the promise fulfilled in front of their faces because Jesus wasn’t who they thought they needed.
Our world today has its own set of problems, and we have our own longings we’d like Jesus to answer. But the point isn’t that He will answer our prayers the way we want Him to. The point is that He Himself is the answer (John 3:16).
What a freeing thought! If you’re tempted, as I sometimes am, to think God loves you any less because He seems silent to your prayers, pivot with me. He loves us so much that He came all those years ago as a baby to save us from our sins. When we anticipate Christmas, we remember His great sacrifice that showed once and for all the depth of His love for you and for me.
Lift Your Eyes and Behold Him
One of my favorite numbers in my church’s Christmas program goes like this: In your silent night, when it’s not all right, life your eyes and behold Him.
Mary and Joseph’s first Christmas involved camping out with animals in a makeshift delivery room. There was no hospital, epidural, or midwife for Jesus’ delivery. They were far from home, and everything did not seem all right. And yet, all those “not right” circumstances were part of God’s perfectly right plan.
Many situations in our lives are far from right either. The temptation can be to grow bitter at what we don’t have or what we’ve lost, and those thoughts threaten our joy this season.
Don’t let them. As God’s children, we trust that nothing can thwart God’s plan for our lives. Our problems may actually be a piece of a larger purpose we can’t see yet.
That truth doesn’t negate our pain and tears. They are real, and God sees us. But instead of dwelling on what we can’t change, let’s look to the God who never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Celebrating the gift of His presence in all circumstances is something we can anticipate.
What about the Christmas season are you anticipating most this year?
Kristen Hogrefe Parnell writes suspenseful fiction from a faith perspective for teens and adults. Her own suspense story involved waiting on God into her thirties to meet her husband, and she desires to keep embracing God’s plan for her life when it’s not what she expects. She also teaches English online and is an inspirational speaker for schools, churches, and podcasts. Her young adult dystopian novels, The Revisionary and The Reactionary, both won the Selah for speculative fiction, and her first romantic suspense novel with Mountain Brook Ink releases December 2022. Kristen and her husband live in Florida and enjoy sharing their lake home with family and friends. Connect with her at KristenHogrefeParnell.com.
A Revisionary rewrites the rules.
A Rogue breaks them.
Which one is she?
Nineteen-year-old Portia Abernathy plans to earn a Dome seat and rewrite the Codex rules to rescue her exiled brother. Her journey demands answers from the past civilization, but uncovering the truth means breaking the rules she set out to rewrite.
Where will the world be in 2149? If citizens forget their past, they will be lost in an identity crisis. That’s exactly the state of the American Socialists United (ASU). This dystopian story opens in Cube 1519, a ghetto where the only use for obsolete cell phones is to throw them like rocks at mongrels. Portia and her father survive like many other citizens, with no electricity or technology and no expectation for a better life.
Yet Portia remembers her brother Darius—before he was taken from her. Now that’s she’s graduated, she determines to get him back. She thinks earning a Dome seat as a Revisionary candidate will be her ticket to rewriting the Codex and reversing his sentence. However, when she receives her draft and arrives at the Crystal Globe University for training, she discovers the world is very different outside her cube and that prisoners like Darius aren’t the only ones trapped by the system.
