I N T R O D U C T I O N.

This blog series arose out of the dread I feel for the holidays. It’s our first Christmas without Mom, one of my closest people. Putting that in writing makes it all too real.

Can we skip the holidays this year? Not necessarily, but we can use pain to cut loose what should have fallen away long ago: cultural demands that have little to do with knowing King Jesus. There has to be a better way to worship through the pain than making ourselves conform to an exasperating holiday culture that only thrusts us deeper into the throes of grief. 

I think there is something here for the broken one limping through the glad tidings rigmarole. I think it was here all along. I think it might change us forever: This brokenhearted Christmas can show us that knowing Christ is far better than a feeling. Feelings, on this side of heaven, come and go. Knowing Christ does not. Praise God when we do feel Him. Praise God when our spiritual highs are a foretaste of the feast to come. But God is so much better than a holiday high, and we do the hard work of waiting well when we remember this.  

If you’re surprised this blog series has little to do with Christmas traditions, you’re not off in that. It has everything to do with lowering your walls to the suffering Savior who loved you enough to abandon His throne, to walk this painful earth, to conquer it, to turn it for His glory and your good.

Grief is an opportunity to submit to God like never before. Grief means you have lost much already. Grief makes this season a timely springboard to count the rest His. 

Let’s start in simple ways, letting our pain inch us a little closer to King Jesus each day. These 12 holiday devotionals are a practical tool to keep us present in the best ways while hurting in the deepest ways. It won’t always be this hard. We’re just not there yet. 

So if we’re still here celebrating Christmas, it’s because we’re still here waiting. Old Testament prophets waited centuries for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas proves God is worth our waiting.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:22-25 (NIV).

I’m looking forward to spending 12 days walking toward Christ together. Would you pray with me that God is glorified and that readers fall deeper in love with Him? It is an honor to have you reading along.

-💛 – Paige

*Christmas While We Wait is a 12-day devotional series for the heart that’s grieving through the holidays. Set to begin on Monday, December 7th, the blog series will continue through Friday, December 18th. Enter your email at paigepippin.com to receive posts straight to your inbox.