By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Picture it – Gabriel, the angel, comes to visit the virgin Mary to tell her she’s going to conceive and carry the Son of God in her womb. But rather than get excited, she has a different response.

“Pregnant??!! But I’m engaged to be married! Do you really think Joseph is going to believe that God made me pregnant? And let’s not forget that by Jewish law I can be stoned for being promiscuous! No one will believe I didn’t sleep around. Nope, I’m not going to do it! I refuse!!!”

Obviously, this didn’t happen, but what if it had? What if Mary hadn’t been so amicable? Although the scenario above didn’t actually happen, it could have. If you carefully read the account in Luke 1:34-38, it makes it clear that when Gabriel came to visit Mary, she wasn’t pregnant yet. She could have told him she didn’t want to become pregnant with the Son of God.

From the beginning of time, God created humans to have freewill. He has never forced us to do something He wanted us to do. That’s why some people make bad choices and choose to harm others, while other people choose to be obedient to God and He uses them in profound ways. We all have a choice, just as Mary and the rest of the people involved in the Christmas story had a choice.

Mary didn’t have to accept God’s gift of being the one to be the mother of the Son of God. Joseph didn’t have to believe Mary was pregnant with God’s Son. He didn’t have to marry her; he could have chosen to make her a public spectacle. The shepherds and wise men didn’t have to go visit the baby Jesus. Simeon and Anna didn’t have to believe they would see Israel’s Savior. They could have given up hope long ago and not been in the temple waiting to see the Messiah.

Every person had the choice to be selfish – to look out for themselves and no one else. Yet think of all they would have missed! Because they chose to take God at His Word and believe His promises, they saw God in huge, powerful ways.

It’s the same with us. We all have a choice. When life is hard, will we cling to God and hold on to His promises, or will we give up hope? Will we choose to believe when the circumstances around us scream that trusting God is pointless?

Life isn’t always going to be easy, even for those who honor God in all they say and do. It wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph to be obedient to God. In fact, because of their obedience to Him their lives were filled with more challenges. Yet because of those challenges, they also got to see God deliver them from those problems in astounding ways. They were privileged to see angels, they had dreams and visions, they met men from far away who worshipped the Son of God, they, along with Jesus, were spared from death on more than one occasion, and their every need was provided. Yes, they had big problems, but they also got to know firsthand the power of an Almighty God who was guiding and protecting them.

So whatever you’re facing at this time, know there is a purpose to your problems. God hasn’t abandoned you. Choose to believe Him no matter what. Hold on to His promises. Cling to hope. Trust Emmanuel – God with us.

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.” ~ Luke 1:45

© December 19, 2013

By Erin Healy

A little girl walks down a frozen sidewalk, holding her daddy's hand. The two shop for simple things today: toothpaste, socks, peanut butter. A weighty paper sack sits securely in her father's arm. The stores are decorated for the holidays, warm lights on cold snow, but winter has come early, already harsh. The family's house burned down two weeks ago, and the blaze reduced life as they knew it to its simplest elements: love, pain, hope. This Christmas their gifts will be simple and their gratitude refined.

The child doesn't understand her new reality the way her father does. But he holds her hand and at the moment she is content, though she shivers from the chill and misses her favorite stuffed bear.

A tall window rimmed in white lights frames a woman's evening dress, cobalt blue and elegant, the liquid fabric kissing the heels of the mannequin's sandals. The little girl pauses at the glittering glass. She lets go of her daddy's fingers and leans in for a closer look. Her breath fogs the pane. It is a dress of dreams. A brooch the size of her fist cinches the waistline, and the high illusion collar is trimmed with jewels that catch the light like stars.

"I need a dress, Daddy."

"Yes you do." The flames ate all but the outfit she was wearing.

"I like this one."

She doesn't see her father smile and shift the shopping bag to his other arm.

"I want this one. Can I have it?"

"It'll be a few years before you're ready for that dress, honey."

"But I want it now. Please? You said I need a dress."

"You do, and I'll make sure you have what you need. Listen." He squats beside her, looks into her face kissed with a glow from all the blue dazzle. "When you're big enough for that dress, I promise to buy it for you."

"What if someone else gets it first? What if it's gone by then?"

"I'll make sure you have a dress that you love even more than this one. What do you say?"

She tears her eyes away from the window and searches his face for truth. He isn't teasing her. "Promise?" she asks.

"I promise." He stands.

"How long is a few years?"

"The blink of an eye."

She tests this. It's too hard to blink just one eye, so she does both, then looks at him sideways, unconvinced. He laughs, and she thinks of Santa, and decides she can wait. The child takes a last look at the beautiful gown. Then she takes her daddy's hand and is content again.

***

Today it would take both hands and most of my toes to count all the people I know and love whose lives have been reduced by some heartbreak to the simplest elements: eat, sleep, wake, work if you can. Hold on to hope with fingers that are stiff with cold. Shivering, we walk down frosty sidewalks lined with showcases filled all the things we want--no, things we need--but for one reason or another can't have. Yet.

Christmas seems to be a season of anticipation. We wait, either with expectation or cynicism, for all kinds of things. Good things. God, we pray, when will you meet the need? When will you grant relief? Could it please be now?

I believe that sometimes God grants us glimpses of what will be, the way he told his disciple Simon that his name would be Peter, and that one day--not at that moment--he would become a true rock, a pillar of faith (Matthew 16:17-18).

Recently I saw something of life that I want, that I think I need, and I asked God if I could have it. Please? Like a little girl with her hands and face pressed to a glistening shop window. "Yes," I believe I heard him say. "I want that for you too. But it'll be several years before you can have it."

What is several years? Three? Thirty-three? I don't know. The point is not the timing, but the promise. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives  (John 14:18,27). It's the promise that keeps the hope alive, that allows us to take God's hand and believe he will give us what we need for today, so that we can live fully now, in spite of what we think we lack. Because he is Emmanuel; he is with us in the present moment.

Today I live with socks, toothpaste, and peanut butter instead of an evening gown, and it is enough. Contentment feeds hope.

This Christmas, may God refresh his promises to you, and may you choose to believe them. May today be a big enough container to hold all the hope he offers. And may you be able to take his hand, which will keep you warm.


*This post first appeared in Erin Healy's December 2013 Newsletter. Used by permission.

About the Author


Erin Healy is an award-winning fiction editor who has worked with many talented novelists. She began working with Ted Dekker in 2002 and edited twelve of his heart-pounding stories before their collaboration on Kiss, the first novel to seat her on “the other side of the desk.”

Erin is the owner of WordWright Editorial Services, a consulting firm specializing in fiction book development. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and the Academy of Christian Editors. She lives with her family in Colorado.

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Erin’s new novel Stranger Things releases on New Year’s Eve. Get a sneak peak at the first two chapters here: http://www.erinhealy.com/2013/10/26/stranger-things/

By Rachel Hamilton

I had my life worked out. I knew where I was going. But what I didn't know was God was planning something completely different for me, something life changing and bigger than I could have imagined.

At fifteen-years old, I knew what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to be a paramedic and save lives. As I started training for it, suddenly God shut the door. Dream after dream was crushed, and time after time the answer was “No.”

I couldn't understand it. If God loved me, why did everything I try crumble? Why did He say no so much to me when everyone around me got a yes? Did He hate me? Was I a problem and too much to handle, so He gave up on me?

From an early age I had wanted to do something with my life, but my life was a mess no matter how much I tried to change it. One day, out of nowhere, God laid it on my heart to start an online ministry to encourage people to wait on God. Since God had put me in a training program for years to learn to wait on Him, I knew what people were going through when their plans changed and they were forced to wait. Amazingly, people started responding to what I had to say, and slowly, God revealed to me what His plan for my life was, and it was not what I would have ever thought.

But I am slow, slow to understand what is often right in front of me. I was still blind to the calling God had for me. So He touched the very thing that was a pride issue for me – my strength and health. God stopped me in my tracks and made me listen. He took me to a place where He took everything away and He asked me, “Will you still praise Me if I never choose to bless you? Is it more important for you to make something of yourself, or will you obey Me even if that means not being able to do anything?”

This was a huge wakeup call to me, and one of the hardest lessons I had to learn, that obedience is better than sacrifice. It wasn't a fun or enjoyable lesson, but it was the very thing that made me wake up and see that when God says to trust Him, He means trusting Him with everything, not just the things I want to give Him.

The beautiful thing about God is that He does want to bless us more than we can imagine. Once I laid down my idol of selfish ambition (not that my dream was a bad one but the mindset behind it was), God opened amazing doors to fulfill His plan for my life. I never would have imagined that He would call me to become an author, nor could I have foreseen that He would give me the huge privilege of speaking into the lives of thousands of people every day. God is continuing to bless me and show me unconditional faithfulness, even when I am not faithful to Him. I am still sick, I still have bad days, and I still sometimes forget His promises and try doing my own thing, but He shows me every day the beauty of being in His will, and there is no place I would rather be. Sometimes we have to be broken so God can use us in a bigger way than if we had never suffered. God may take us through hard times, but He will always bring beauty from ashes. He dreams big, amazing, and wonderful dreams for us, but first He may ask us to lay down our dreams so we are ready to experience His.

© December 4, 2013

About the Author


Rachel Hamilton is the founder of It's Worth the Wait – Becoming God's Men and Women in Waiting ministry, an online ministry to encourage those who are waiting on God for His best. She is also the author of Hidden Struggles: Purity, God, Guys and Life, a book for young women that addresses the areas of purity, waiting, modesty, relationships, God, and life. Rachel lives in New Zealand.