God Hears Her: A Joyful ChristmasPrimjer

Always Winter Unlike some of my family—the ones who can’t wait to go downhill skiing—I don’t look forward to winter. When the first snowflake falls, I immediately start calculating how many months of Michigan winter are left. Imagine C. S. Lewis’s fictional world of Narnia, where for a hundred years it was always winter. Cold, wet snow—with no hope of springtime ever arriving to wipe away the memories of icy temperatures and piles of the white stuff. But worst of all, in Narnia, Christmas never came. Always winter and never Christmas! To me, the best part of winter is the anticipation, excitement, and wonder of Christmas. Life is bleak when you have nothing to look forward to. There are some whose souls are locked in winter. The hardness of life has frozen their hearts. Disappointed with life, they find that each day is filled with despair. “Weeping may stay for the night,” the psalmist tells us, “but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). In the darkest times of our lives, God longs to turn our “wailing into dancing” (v. 11). David wrote, “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy” (Psalm 94:19). If you cry out to God in the midst of your “winter,” you can experience the joy of the Christ of Christmas today. —Cindy Contemplate the joy of anticipation.