Some years I am still in the mood for Christmas carols well into January, and others I’m ready to pack up the holiday festivity and jump into a clean new year moments after the last gifts are opened. This year, as the candles were lit and the words to “Silent Night” filled my family’s Christmas Eve, I realized how badly I need “the dawn of redeeming grace” with me as we head into 2018.

In that moment, words from the Christmas story came to mind, words I’d been reading and thinking about over the course of Advent. Specifically, three verbs. Read more