Born a Child, and Yet a King Day 28
Peace is a word that holds such meaning to this harried mom of three.
I have been known to—while fixing breakfast, running to carpool, changing a diaper, switching out the laundry, or doing all these tasks simultaneously—quip, “Three kids is a lot of kids.” School and therapy and birthday parties and hobbies and church…the list is endless. Sitting down for a moment of peace sometimes feels impossible because even if I am sitting, my mind is an absolute whirlwind of what’s coming next.
My boys, on the other hand, know peace intimately. They know they don’t have to think about their next meal, whether they’ll have clean clothes in their drawers, or whether they’ll have a ride to school. They know there will be dinner on the table for them every night and, at the very least, a yogurt pouch and granola bar for them in the car every morning. They know that they’re taken care of.
Something I’ve been known to say—hands buried in soap suds at the sink, running water in the tub, sweeping up a spill, or trying to accomplish all three things at once—is, “I want someone to mother me.” Because to me, being parented is synonymous with enjoying peace without using my own hands to create it.
On the one hand, I had my peaceful childhood. It’s now time for me to create a peaceful childhood for my kids.
Oh, but on the other? My peace has been purchased by the Prince of Peace.
Amid the prophetic proclamation of a soon-coming King, the prophet Micah says of Jesus:
They will live securely,
for then his greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.
He will be their peace.
––Micah 5:4-5
The peace that the nation of Israel had longed for was coming. They will be wanderers, ragtag nations, and conquered people no more.
When Jesus is finally born, the angels tell the shepherds in the fields:
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!” (Luke 2:14).
The beauty of their proclamation is that the “people he favors” (v.14) is anyone who calls upon His name. Being called one of the “people he favors” is possible because of the sacrifice that the baby Jesus will grow up to make. The “people he favors” have peace because He purchased it on the cross at Calvary.
He has redeemed us, friends. And that redemption comes with a deep and abiding peace. Whatever your place in life—married, single, mother, teacher, in ministry, in a corporate office, feeling peace, or striving to create it—if you have called upon His name, His peace is for you. His arrival on this earth heralds a sigh that had been held-in ever since Eve took from the fruit of the garden. And as we exhale that long-held breath, the peace he affords is ready to fill our lungs.
The King has come.
And He brings His peace with Him.
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84 thoughts on "Christmas Eve"
Micah 5:4-5… thank you. I needed to hear this.
This is beautiful. Thank you!
Mmm. Good stuff here. In the midst of leaving an abusive marriage. In the midst of an adult child under the influence of an abusive smear campaign. In the midst of trauma therapy. In the midst of looking evil realities square in the eye. My breath is held. Waiting for truth. Waiting for justice. Waiting for relationships to be healed and restored. Waiting in hope that feels absolutely foolish at times. I have never known how critical it is for Christ to be the Prince of Peace. Now I know. And it helps me sigh in relief and expand my lungs and breathe out praise. It’s too much for my heart. Thank God He is more than enough.
I needed this reminder of peace!
As we go through this day may we think about all our Savior Jesus Christ was born to be and accomplish for all of us sinners. He is our peace ❤️
amen!
Beautiful devotion today. Thank you
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I needed to read this! ❤️ Thank you!
Merry Christmas, friends!
GramsieSue your words really touched me thank you for sharing!
Our God is so amazing! Today is my birthday and it is a joy to share a day with my savior. Prayers thru tears, collapsed on my knees years ago have been answered-although not in ways I expected. Surrendering to God is the best thing I ever did. The more I surrender, lean into him, and let him into the chaos the more peace and rest I have. I can do all things with God- even the mad dash of the holidays. Prayers for all of you tonight. I’m grateful for all of you ✝️
Peace is something I long for as a mother of two little girls. I pray the Lord will give me peace on the middle of caos❤️
Merry Christmas! ❤️
@Rhonda J love your words today. I agree some days this year it has felt like there is no way we could ever find happiness after my dads accident. But here we are going to church together and having a Christmas party with friends. All of our family lives in Minnesota so we always open our house to friends for the holidays. Merry Christmas everybody!
Merry Christmas Eve from Mexico!
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Merry Christmas Eve!
Merry Christmas Eve! So grateful for the Prince of Peace.
Merry Christmas Eve to Everyone
Merry Christmas Everyone! While I haven’t been terribly vocal in the group, it has been comforting to know that while I do this study, I’m joined with women from all over working this into their routines too.
What a beautiful Savior! May you all truly experience His peace today and give thanks and praise!
May I ask for prayer for a friend that won’t be with her kids on Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day as planned? She is heartbroken. Thank you! Merry Christmas!
@Sharon Jones, So sorry to hear about your friend. I’m praying for those twin boys. So grateful your friend Abbey new Jesus and that she’s HOME.
Good morning and Merry Christmas Eve to all you beautiful SRT sisters!
Merry Christmas . May we all abide in the Prince of Peace
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Peace and Christmas love I pray for all my Shes, wherever this advent finds you. The past several years I have read Ann Voscamp’s advent devotional and part of today’s read:
This night a battle has been waged and won for you. Love had to come back for you. Love had to get to you. The Love that has been coming for you since the beginning—He slays dragons for you. This is the truest love story of history, and it’s His-Story, and it’s for you. All the other fairytale love stories only echo your yearning for this truest realist one—this one has its beginning before the beginning of time. This night, you on this visited planet, your rescue is here. You can breathe.
Your God extends now on straw.
Much Christmas peace to all! ❤️
I want to add an update and to thank especially those of you who have been praying for me: my son Matthew contacted me yesterday and asked if I would like to meet him while he is in town visiting his father. I believe we will be having lunch on Monday. (Haven’t checked the details yet.) A wonderful praise! Now I ask for wisdom in holding the boundaries of expecting respect from him but also letting him know that my love is unconditional, while his place in my life is dependent on him treating me with respect.
Lord keep my eyes looking up!! I have a peace from God that I did not have in my younger years. I’m so very thankful for that.
Can I ask for prayer? I started feeling like I was getting sick last night. My throat is a bit sore.
Merry Christmas Eve to all!
Merry Christmas! Thankful for this community. ❤️
The King has come ❤️ and He brings peace with Him.
Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to register. She must have been utterly exhausted-hugely pregnant. Joseph was certainly deeply stressed. And yet the very things that seemed to be going wrong-the timing of the census, the journey nine months pregnant, the lack of a place to stay-were the very things that would be celebrated for generations to come. Here, in their moment of despondency and despair, they stand on the very cusp of the greatest miracle of all time.
I want to remember this. This moment.
When things don’t seem to be the way I was planning and hoping.
When life looks helpless and hopeless.
When I don’t know what the future holds.
I know Who holds the future. And He holds me.
He gives me hope. And peace. And love.
And in these moments, I will seek Him.
Blessings to my fellow shes this glorious Christmas Eve. ❤️
What a blessing it was to hear this today. He offers peace to all who call on His name, and I am so thankful that He has adopted me as a child of the Most High.
I have been struggling lately, especially this week with the feeling of loneliness. I feel as though I never will get married or fall in love. I so want it to happen, but sometimes it feels like the clock is ticking. I crave strong Christian friendships in my life as well. It really is hard to find opportunities to meet new people, and it is intimidating!
Anyway, all this to say, I really needed these words today. His ways are not our ways, and all of the happiness and joy that I find in this life are just a shadow of what is to come. I am so thankful and blessed to have grown up where I have grown up, to have the family that I have, to have my job and my house. All these negative emotions are a distraction of what it is all about really. Jesus. It’s about Him. And thank God that He has found me, and holds me as close as he does right now.
Praying for all of you, friends! I know that sometimes the holidays are especially challenging for those with broken hearts, who miss loved ones, and who look back and wish for “the good old days.” There are even greater days coming. I’m praying for peace for all of you today amidst the craziness. ❤️
Hallelujah ❤️
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Thank you Churchmouse. This will be my intention for today!!!
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Merry Christmas Eve! So grateful for His never ending peace. ❤️
Beautiful devotional. I know what she means about now having peace when raise my two boys, both of which had AD/HD, I seem to never have peace when I was at home. I would joke with my co-workers that I came to for some peace.
God, Christ and the Holy Spirit have giving me so much peace throughout my life.
Be blessed and glorify the Lord on this the day before we celebrate His Son’s birth.
Peace!
Oh my precious She’s, Good Morning, and Merry Christmas Eve! The anticipation is to its climax, as we have arrived, and tomorrow is Christmas day! For the busy She’s, I hope you carve out some time, I remember the feeling of “is it enough,” enough presents, enough baking, enough memories being created…” and so on…then Christmas comes and it’s over. That’s why we must not put our energy into those things, we will always feel a little underwhelmed, let down, or depleted! That’s why our PEACE comes from the Lord! The ONLY true peace we will ever find. I am happy for all those that are at the “beginning” so to speak with young kids starting traditions and memories. Others like me, have a quiet Christmas with no family around and look back at all the memories past. They are so precious. I quick story that might be useful to some-
My husband at the time broke to me he did not want to be in the marriage anymore after a short 2.5 years, which came as rather a shock to me since all seemed to be well and we had a 2.5-year-old. I was devastated and Christmas came and my hope and dreams were shattered. It was not to be a magical Christmas..it was to be a sad one. Yet, you have to be happy for a 2-year-old. I remember perfectly that we went to see Lion King at the movies Christmas day. But God…That’s when He pulled me close. He hugged me, held me, was my peace.
YOU may be here reading today because you are broken this Christmas, it is not how you thought it would look. But God- He will hold you, lean in, don’t look at your circumstances because many have been there, and God can lead you to those to help and comfort, but Jesus Christ has been given to US for our true comfort and peace, he has a love that will never leave us. He can put the pieces slowly back together, and any other way will fail. Know you will be okay if you give your life to him and let him guide you, there is beauty to come. Look up. Christmas is just a few days…don’t let that bring you into the trap that it has to look a certain way. Tomorrow will be over, but Christ lives. He sees you.
I am so grateful for this
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Merry Christmas Eve She’s. May we all experience the Peace Jesus promised today and throughout the coming year.
Merry Christmas Eve, my friends!
In the fulfillment of time, Father God orchestrated all things so that His Son could be born of a virgin in Bethlehem just as He had His prophets declare centuries earlier. Jesus came to redeem us and save us from our sins. He came so that we can receive adoption from the Father and be His children by faith. This is the good news of great joy that brings us peace. Let us worship in amazement at all the Lord has done for us. Let us treasure up what the Lord has revealed to us and meditate upon it. Let us glorify and praise God for all the things we have seen and heard. Let us tell others the good things God had done!
Oh, Sharon, how beautiful and sad. Grateful she knew Jesus. Praying for her family as they struggle through this time.
My friend Abbey who I asked prayer for – went home to the Lord Dec. 23rd at midnight after a two month battle with cancer. It was extremely quick. She leaves behind two twin 15 year old boys. I had not seen Abbey in a few years and this morning I asked why Lord why? He reminded me that sometimes our death is quick sometimes we are taken in a blink of an eye but Abbey had two months to love on her boys to prepare them for her to die. We never know when our end on this planet is. Abbey knew Jesus- she is home in heaven today! At Jesus feet this Christmas Eve! Pray for her family!
It is the Eve of the Nativity! Merry Merry!
Peace comes upon me when I look at the Nativity scene. Even if on a tiny ornament, the discernable figures of Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus bring a sense of peace. It’s funny for me to think about it as I consider the reality of the scene as not so peaceful. It is paradoxical. Mary would have been in labor pain, and it must have been noisy with the census crowd around as they searched for a place to give birth. It’s like watching a show on mute. A tiny action and push of a button immediately quiets the sounds of life. In the noise of life here and now, the power of Jesus is kind of like that mute button. He came small, and yet mighty to save us from all the chaos. He quiets me on the inside when I settle my heart upon Him. No matter what is going on on the outside, I can choose stillness on the inside. Only by the strength given to me by the Prince of Peace. One tiny decision on my part can bring me to stillness that brings healing. I have learned that stillness within me is powerful. “He will be their peace” (Micah 5:5). He is. When Jesus was born and placed in that manger, people came to see Him and were said by the scriptures to be amazed by the reports of the shepherds. The message given by the Angel of the Lord told them the Lord Himself had come, the Messiah as promised was here. I can only imagine the noise of excitement. And Mary had the stillness of peace in the midst of it. As it says in Luke 2:19- “But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.” This is what I am going for. To hold and remember the greater truth of this story. “He will stand and shepherd them in the strength of the Lord. In the majestic name of the Lord our God. They will live securely…” (Micah 5:4). May the Prince of Peace be our peace. May we learn to be still more often and know that He is God. Faith and contemplation are beautiful gifts given to us by our Father for Christmas. May we treasure and ponder them in our hearts. Press the mute button and praise God. Let the stillness of Salvation settle our souls. Until… Maranatha. Amen.
Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,
And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!
Angels with shepherds glorify Him!
The wise men journey with a star!
Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!
—Kontakion for Christmas, Roman the Melodist
On this day the Virgin cometh to a cave to give birth to God the Word ineffable, Who was before all the ages. Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to be gazed on as a young Child Who before the ages is God.
—Kontakion of Eve of Nativity © Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Amen
All of this!!!!
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Oh Amen! It’s still dark and cold here but these words warm me and calm my mind… may we all reach deep for peace amid the noise of our world
Merry Christmas Eve!!! Glory to God in the highest and peace and goodwill towards men (& and Shes!)
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Such a good reminder today when my to-do list is quite long! We can find peace even in the busyness because our peace comes from God and not our own doing. I like your challenge @Churchmouse to be intentional about resting in His peace. For me that was carving out these moments this morning to rest in His Truth. Later it will be going to church for a Christmas Eve service with my family and enjoying time with family today. Merry Christmas Eve sisters <3
I am so grateful because according to what I see, I shouldn’t be at peace today. But the Prince of Peace has captured my heart and holds me in His everlasting arms. So grateful for all of you and your encouraging words. Let’s keep our eyes on the “unseen” and let the Prince of Peace rule and reign in our hearts! Thank you Jesus for coming to earth!!
I have struggled with peace this season but I am thankful for the Prince of Peace who speaks rest to my weary heart.
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Wonderful reminder Jesus’ peace is for all who know him as Lord and Savior. I’ve already prayed this morning that I not shut him out of Christmas by losing focus and worrying about making all perfect and how I envision it to be. Come Lord Jesus and help me ponder You and Your greatness today and every day! Merry Christmas Eve to all!
Wonderful reminder Jesus’ peace is for all who know him as Lord and Savior. I’ve already prayed this morning that I not shut him out of Christmas by losing focus and worrying about making all performances hie I envision it to be. Come Lord Jesus and help me ponder You and Your greatness today and every day! Merry Christmas Eve to all!
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Father God, that we find favor in Your eyes and the eyes of men and that we receive Your peace as it is written. In Jesus mighty name, Amen!
CHURCHMOUSE – love that – “intentional about resting in His peace today, regardless how busy we are” as I get ready to roll up my sleeves and tackle today’s list. Thank you for the reminder!
Merry Christmas Eve, sisters!
One of my favorite moments of church is the sharing of the peace. May peace be with you all today.
My greatest desire for this weekend is to be at peace. No stress because of my own making, no harried heart, no hustle and bustle. Just peace in celebrating the One who is my peace. To just “be”, drinking in the moment – remembering and reflecting on my Savior.
Happy Christmas Eve Sisters!
Praise God that He is our Peace. Im not a mom, but I relate. I have two jobs and am a wife. I feel like I want to be mothered some days too.
Merry Christmas, She’s!!
Praise God that He is our Peace. Im not a mom, but I relate. I have two jobs and am a wife. I feel like I want to be mothered some days too.
Merry Christmas Eve. Let there be peace on Earth. So grateful for the gift of Jesus and the peace he brings to those who believe. May you all have a peaceful Christmas.
A sigh that had been held in ever since Eve took the fruit in the garden…. Oh what a beautiful picture!!
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Thankful that because of Jesus, I can have peace with God! His righteous life and holy sacrifice bought that peace. There is nothing I can do to add ro it or take away from it. I am soul safe and secure despite any and all chaos in this world!
The Prince of Peace! I am so grateful for the peace He brings! Merry Christmas Eve sisters! ❤️
Amen!
I pray we are all intentional about resting in His peace today, regardless how busy we are.
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I’m so thankful to read and pray alongside you! (Sorry for the broken up comment lol).
I love the line about how being parented is enjoying peace without using our hands to create it. I’m so grateful that I don’t have to strive to create my peace with God, that he created and provided it for me. Thank you Jesus for being our ever present peace!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
This is such a great reminder
Merry Christmas Eve to all my sisters in Christ in the She community. ❤️ I hope each of you feel God’s peace throughout this day and into the Christmas season. I am praying for each of you.
Resting in him who is my peace. Joy to every sweet She who with longing hearts seek his face daily. Amen
Resting in him who is my peace. All my children, their spouses and allgrandchildren will be arriving soon.