Maribeth Barber Albritton

Before I say anything else, let me extend a huge thank-you to everyone who subscribed to my newsletter! Y’all have blessed and encouraged me more than you will know. The next newsletter will come out on New Year’s Day, and every four weeks after that.

By the way, if you had trouble signing up on your phones, that problem has been resolved. Three cheers for WordPress–I cannot recommend them highly enough!

Amid the excitement of launching my newsletter, however, I’ve had a wild and woolly Advent season. Things are always a little more harried when Thanksgiving and Advent are so close together, but that can be dealt with easily enough. The things that aren’t easy are things like…

the emotional fallout of a broken friendship, right at the beginning of Advent…

the unexpected death of a family friend, smack-dab in the middle of the month…

and three of my four grandparents spending time in the hospital right here in the final days before Christmas, all of them with major health problems. 

This last development has, undoubtedly, been the hardest. We’ve all been deeply worried, and the hospitalizations have changed our traditional festivities dramatically. 

But just this morning I was telling a dear friend about my grandparents’ situations, and I remarked rather mournfully, “It’ll be a very different Christmas for us this year.”

Looking me straight in the eye, my friend said, with an encouraging smile, “But it will still be holy.“

That was exactly what I needed to hear. These trials, both large and small, have made the longing of Advent that much more poignant. I’ve been keenly aware of my own need for my Savior amid all the tension and anxiety of the past four weeks–and that is the heart of the season.

Veni, veni Emmanuel! 

Come, O come Emmanuel! Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death!

So if your Advent season has been a little frayed at the edges, too, take heart and remember with me: no matter what happens, no matter how crazy and hard our lives may be…

Our God is with us…

Light and life to all He brings…

Let Heaven and nature sing!