She was asking because she sensed that it was also true for me: Christmas as survival. In those days, I just wanted it to be over. Both of my parents grew up in alcohol-fueled backgrounds. Every year, they fought the same battles with each other. As soon as we were old enough to remember, we kept well out of sight, making little hideouts like bomb shelters in the bottoms of our closets. I'd take my little brother in with me and hold him close.

One year, our parents threw an entire set of dishes at each other, piece by piece, across the living room. The crashing of cups and salad plates was all the warning that it took about not being noticed. On Christmas Day, there would be rolls of coverless comics in the stockings that we'd hung, but nothing personal under the tree. The sound track would be my parents screaming at one another. By then, the tree leaned precariously towards the floor, branches denuded, and broken ornaments scattered underneath.

Yes, we went to church for the nativity pageant. My parents put on a good front, but it stopped at our front door. I wished that I were anywhere but at home.

"I can't forget how bad those Christmases were!" my friend said. "I've tried over and over, but the memories seem worse every year."

I told her that I had stopped trying when I realized that Christmas is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God didn't send His only Son into a perfect world. Nobody plans to give birth in a stable, no matter how picturesque or full of angels.

Someone said, Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future.

We give those painful memories to God, praying, "I can't handle them, God. You take over."

Faith is courage that has said its prayers. We act on it. We depend on God's love. We share it with others until it becomes a habit, till the old past fades away.

1 Corinthians 2:9b – Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (NKJV)

These good things are waiting for us to claim them.

It is up to us to forgive those makers of our old memories, in order to let God change our hearts. Then, everything changes, because of the Baby in the manger.

Prayer: Dear Father God, we thank You for the gift of Your Son. Help us to break free of our old way of thinking about the past and to accept the new life that You keep ready for us through Your mercy and grace. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

"You can get yourself some candy with the change," I promised my son.

He returned in tears. "This lady jumped out of her car and grabbed the bag and it had my candy bar in it!" he sobbed. The teacher had waited across the street till she saw him coming back with her resumé and grabbed the bag. I consoled him as I saw how much I had to learn.

Later, when computers came in, a young man wanted a resumé for a job as a fireman. "I live across the street from the station," he told me. "I've got to have it today."

When he returned, he demanded to see my work before he paid me. "Nope," I said. "Your payment is for my time and advice even if you don't like it." Then, I closed and locked the door.

He slid the money under the door, and I slid the resumé back. He came back later with flowers, just as I was closing up. "I got the job!" he chortled. He was young and healthy and lived across the street from the fire department, so they'd probably seen him growing up.

As applicants, what will make an employer choose us over others? We are products being compared to other products. The thing that we most need in the job market is to know who we are and what we can do.

The best way to begin finding out who we are is to turn to God. Someone said, There will never be another exactly like me, made to fill a need that only I was meant to fill.

Psalm 139:16 – Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. (AMPC)

Psalm 139:16 – Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. (MSG)

Nobody knows us like our Creator.

Have you come to God with your questions about why you are the way you are? Have you asked Him to guide your feet and to help you walk according to the plan that He has for your life?

Ephesians 5:8b-10a – No more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true — these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. (MSG)

Prayer: Dear Father God, we are grateful to be Your adopted children through Jesus. We ask only to keep company with You and learn a life of love as You lead us to discover what Your plans are for our lives today. Thank You for making each of us a unique creation, fulfilling Your purpose for us from all eternity. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

We were visiting my grandmother, who was Matron of the Nome jail and very busy with civic affairs in small-town Alaska, USA. Her wind-battered, old wooden house and its boardwalk were near the beach of this two-million-kilometre-wide ocean.

I lay back and squalled as I had been doing since birth, due to a milk allergy that had not been caught. My sister managed to climb out of the tire, trying to follow my parents, whom she could see far down the curve of the cove where we had been deposited. But the wind caught her first. As she made her first wobbly step, the wind filled her sealskin parka, which ballooned out around her like a sail, pushing her toward the frigid sea.

Then, she began screaming for help in her baby voice, competing with the shrieking of the gulls and the crashing of the icy waves on that distant, isolated, rocky beach. My parents heard her through all of the noise and rushed back to save her before she drowned in that wind-blown sea.

Psalm 77:1 – I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens. (MSG)

Just as my parents responded immediately to my sister's cries, clearly hearing her voice above all the crashing of the waves and the shrieks of the gulls, when we cry out to God, He also responds immediately. We tend to recognize only "Yes" as a response, but sometimes He answers "No", "Wait", or "I've got a better idea." Wherever we are, whether safe at home or in imminent danger in an unknown locale, God is there, too, and He is listening for our cries. Someone said, "Trying to pray is praying."

Our connection to God gets stronger and deeper as we walk with Him. As we read Scripture, we increase our understanding and become the persons He created to be.

Romans 8:29,38-39 – God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him…. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing — nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable — absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love. (MSG)

Are you experiencing the power and fullness of God's love for you? Do you have a daily conversation with the God Who watches over you and has a plan for your life far beyond any you could imagine? Isn't it time to let go of your plan and step out on His?

Prayer: Dear Father God, how grateful we are as we follow where You direct our footsteps. Thank You for being always with us, to call on, to cry for help, and to be heard! Bring us back to Yourself when we stray and grow us in Your grace today. In the name of Your Son, we pray. Amen.

These days, such a scythe is only seen clutched in the bony hand of the Grim Reaper, a hooded figure in a black robe. But the Bible is very clear that for Christ-followers, death is not forever.

Hebrews 2:15 – And also that [Christ] might deliver and completely set free all those who through the [haunting] fear of death, were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives. (AMPC)

Long ago, my husband's parents were on a bus that braked sharply in traffic, throwing his mother up against the fare box. His father rushed over and gathered her up in his arms, then carried her off the bus, rather than leave her lying there till an ambulance arrived. But her spleen had been damaged, and she died. The police had to investigate, and though nobody blamed him, his father blamed himself, stopped attending church, and felt that God could not forgive him.

His actions that led to his wife's death remained the central fact of his life. Years later, with lung cancer, he travelled across the country to move in with us. Since we went to church, he went back, too. One day, in desperation, to our pastor, he spilled out everything about the torturous turn his life had taken long ago. That pastor put his arms around my father-in-law, telling him that God had forgiven him as soon as he had asked, and He had kept on loving him. You never saw such a change in a person when the pastor's words sank in. My father-in-law found peace.

In the last few minutes of his life, I was holding his hand. "Open the curtains, Daughter," he asked me, with a smile. "I want to see where I'm going." Then, he looked toward heaven, closed his eyes — and died.

Do you need forgiveness for something in your life? Is death a source of fear for you, whenever you hear it mentioned? Peace is God's gift to all believers — no more carrying around the past and its pain. For those who believe in Jesus, death itself will have an end, the Bible promises. Until that day, we have God's forgiveness, and we can know peace.

Prayer: Dear Father God, how grateful we are for Your grace and mercy. We know the reality of death as we age. But as believers, we know that it no longer has any power over us. We know that our hope in heaven continues to light our pathway with the reality of Your presence in our lives. Thank You for ridding us of haunting memories in this life, replacing them with hope and peace as we turn to You and let go of all our old doubts and fears. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Well, I hadn't said any such thing, nor was I worried now. Someone said, "There is often a seed of fear in every act of faith. When fear knocked on my door, faith answered. No one was there."

I had just finished reading the book of Job, understanding it for the first time. Suddenly, his journey of faith had become real to me. God wasn't punishing him or testing him. God was simply with him through a hard time, as Job followed along, open to whatever came next. So, my sign just answered the "Worry" label with a description of a daily spiritual journey with the Lord of the dance, hand in hand.

Then, I prayed. Just as I was saying "Amen", there was a knock on my door.

That was quick! I thought.

"I've been sent to help you." A smiling woman from a studio down the street stood there.

Sent? For just a moment, I wondered if she had wings.

Then, I told her why her words were so familiar. I told her about all the times in the Bible when God sent an angel to announce something important that the receiver needed to hear.

She said that she understood. Then, we put up my sign, which I could never have done alone, since the wind was making it into a sail.

Her appearance turned everything into a blessing, just in case I had succumbed to worry.

I love how The Message puts the prayer Psalm 89 into everyday language, just in time for me.

Psalm 89:8 – God of the Angel Armies, who is like you, powerful and faithful from every angle? (MSG)

This reminds us that God has uncountable angels to do His work, but sometimes He chooses you and me to receive the privilege of helping.

Psalm 89:11,13 – You own the cosmos. You made everything in it … nobody messes with you. (MSG),

That neighbour's support strengthened my faith that God was in this.

Are we listening when God promises to help, or when He sends someone to us with a message? Are we willing to be sent?

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, we are grateful for the hard times that You allow us to experience as we walk through this world, knowing that all is well when we allow You to be in charge. Thank You for the example of Job and for all those of faith, both in Scripture and in our lives, who care for us and support us on the way. We are grateful that worry can never be the response of the believer. Amen.

I couldn't think of any face-saving way to explain that she was looking at the publisher, not the title. I'd spent most of the morning with some university students boxing up the last of the stock from my former bookshop.

Meanwhile, their student leader was just piling books into boxes, like so many bricks, reneging on our agreement for him to show me each volume before packing it away.

"Ah, they're just books!" he said, dumping in another armload. "We don't need them anymore. We've got tech!"

Well, there are books and then there are BOOKS! I reached in quickly and rescued an illustrated Alice in Wonderland, and — was that a copy of The Iliad that he'd just dumped in? I knew that if I asked what happens when tech is down, it would just resurrect an old argument that they'd expect from someone my age. It wouldn't change anything.

But at the heart of all this is the Bible to consider. On-screen could never content me. I need one to hold in my hand and make notes as I listen to God's voice in the text. Recently, I bought a new translation to go with many others, feeling actual excitement as I found content summaries for each book! What a splendid scholarly help for a story like Job.

Someone said, "What is for me, won't go by me." Often, a verse jumps out at me when I open my Bible. I write it down and put it where I can see it. As a believer, I need to know what God says about living a life full of hope and strength with His help.

How do you read your Bible? How often? We need to pay attention to Psalm 119, which contains so many reasons to read Scripture every day:

Psalm 119 (MSG) – Teach me from your textbook on life … the inner meaning of your instructions (vv.124-125); These words hold me up in dark times (v.50); Your words are so choice, so tasty (v.103); With your instruction, I understand life (v.104); By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path (v.105); Put me together again with your Word (v.107); Every word you give me is a miracle word (v.129); Break open your words, let the light shine out, let ordinary people see the meaning (v.130); My life's an open book before you (v.168); And there's lots more!

Prayer: Dear Father God, how grateful we are for the depth of meaning in Your eternal Word, which has endured through all generations despite regular attempts to stamp it out and disregard its truth. Help us to turn to You in Your Word and find the renewal of our hope and strength today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

By watching, I knew that her response would always be fair and kind. When I grew up, I wanted to be just like her. Most of us were from poor communities, except one from a downtown church.

While Christine was at a meeting, one of the girls told us the news that a counsellor had gone home sick, and they were going to pick one of us as her replacement. "And that will be me," she concluded. "I've already written devotionals for the week, so don't get your hopes up."

Then, Christine came back and chose me.

I looked uneasily at the other girl as I stuffed my Bible into my bag and headed out into the dark woods with the keys to Cabin 15.

The door swung open before I could unlock it, and a bunch of squealing eight-year-olds piled out like so many puppies, chattering, giggling, and hugging me.

"We were watching for you," one spoke up. I remembered her from my church. I had filled in at her Sunday School class when she was five.

"About time you got here." The camp cook, who had been watching them, came out behind them. "Good luck with this lot," she added, unsmiling. "They're all yours."

Suddenly, I saw that I would be their Christine: listening, caring, loving them, praying to do my part to help them grow up to be strong women, filled with the joy of believing.

I knew that what I did from then on needed to demonstrate the difference that God had made in my life. Talk wasn't going to cut it. Someone said, You are what you are when no one is watching. How much more, then, did I need God's strength, with these little girls taking my measure all the time!

I watched as the camp cook grumpily headed back to her room, and I prayed that I could be to their lives what Christine had been to mine.

Mark 13:37 – And what I say to you, I say to everybody: Watch (give strict attention, be cautious, active, and alert)! (AMPC)

Ephesians 6:12 – This is no weekend war that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (MSG)

Whether we know it or not, someone is always watching how we live. We can't keep our faith unless we give it away by what we do. Are we taking every opportunity to let our lives show the happiness, joy, freedom, and hope that we find as believers?

Prayer: Dear Father God, how grateful we are that You watch over us always. Thank You for those whose lives have inspired us to draw closer to You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.