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By Mary Lindow
AS I PREPARE THIS PODCAST OUR HOME HAS THE AROMA OF BANANA BREAD FILLING THE AIR WITH A COZY WARMTH.
Soft Carols are playing in the background. My dear Steve has gone bed for now.
He’s been working on a carpentry project for my Christmas present.😊
AS I SIT HERE, MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE MOVED WITH TENDERNESS FOR THOSE WHO ARE GRIEVING over the recent miscarriage of a 22 week old baby, a friend who has had a sudden death of a family member, those friends of mine tending to the sick and fragile, and for the widows I know, who ache for the arms of the one they loved so well for so long.
My heart is saddened by the weariness of knowing single friends of Steve and I are longing for rest and still have hopes of meeting another godly person who might be the one to nurture and live them.
ALL OF THE KINDNESSES AND BEAUTIFUL THINGS OF CHRISTMAS, truly, when wrapped up in compassion, outreach to those who are hurting, personal sacrifice so that others may thrive, and with discernment to know when these things are God nudging you, this is what makes the true value of Christmas shine.
CHRIST CAME TO GIVE.
He came to give all.
To tend to all those that were held captive, to set them free, to open the eyes of the blinded and the cerebral intellectuals who refuse to hear the truth.
But yet, HE came!
And HE is still speaking today, still pursuing those who run from him.
WHEN GOD BREATHED THE BREATH OF LIFE
INTO EVERY HUMAN BEING...
...IT WAS HIS BREATH
As long as there is breath in a human, it is the breath of God.
God will pursue every human being, regardless of how they feel towards him. This is the love that came down at Christmas. And this is the love that stays. People can run. But they cannot hide from the light of God.
AS I SHARE THIS BRIEF BUT WARM AND HEARTFELT PODCAST WITH YOU, I wanted to share something so profoundly, beautiful and so well spoken. I’ve read over and meditated/ pondered it many times during this Christmas season because there have been disappointments! There have has been betrayals, harsh words, indifference, people pushing you away because they can’t receive the love you offer them.
These are the things Jesus experienced on a regular basis, and yet in his perfection, he continued to pursue the will of God in his life, and eventually, it COST him his life!
THAT LITTLE, WEE BABE IN THE MANGER TROUGH, He was filled with the fullness of God and was God, but chose to walk out in human flesh, incarnate, the life of everyday human beings, in order to prove that he was aware of the suffering and the sorrows of this human life in a fallen world.
AS I SHARE THIS BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION FROM ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL BY THE NAME OF JESSICA JECKER, (who is an influencer on another social media site), I hope that you will allow it to saturate any part of you that is suffering or that is resisting love, or, is perhaps angry at God, questioning why life is so hard, or where you may have become bitter and hardened to the tenderness that is available to each of us.
LISTEN CLOSELY TO THE CRY OF MALACHI AND WHAT GOD‘S WORD SPOKE. Listen to the words of one pondering the beauty and the fierce sacrifice that Jesus so humbly and willingly yielded to so that we might truly celebrate a Savior.
HERE IT IS:
“This week, I lingered in the final breath of Malachi’s words and I felt the unbearable weight of what followed.
When the prophet finished speaking, heaven did not answer. The echo of his voice faded...and then... nothing.
Four hundred years of silence.
No open vision.
No burning word.
No prophet rising with fire in his bones.
No “Thus says the Lord” breaking the darkness.
Four hundred years of waiting.
Of longing. Of groaning.
Of hearts lifted toward heaven that seemed sealed shut.
Generation after generation was born into the quiet.
They lived. They died.
And still—no voice.
Until one night. On a dirt floor in a forgotten place...
in a stable that did not look holy...
in the shadows of obscurity and insignificance... a sound was released.
After four hundred years, heaven spoke again—
Not with thunder, not with fire, not from a mountain- but from the lungs of a newborn.
A cry pierced the silence.
A cry that split history in two.
A cry that carried eternity within it.
In that moment, the King of Glory stepped down into the dust of His own creation. The Eternal wrapped Himself in skin.
The Word became flesh—and cried.
The Son laid aside His throne and chose a manger.
Heaven’s highest treasure placed in a feeding trough.
He came low. He came meek.
He came breakable.
Wrapped in swaddling cloths, laid where animals ate, born beneath the looming shadow of a cross.
A Lamb born to be slain.
The Hope of a hopeless world breathed His first breath in the dark.
A weary world rejoiced as a young virgin labored and delivered its redemption.
In that manger, the Great I AM made Himself vulnerable.
Touchable.
Killable.
And with one holy cry, the silence was shattered.
The separation was broken. The way was opened.
Then, suddenly, heaven could not remain quiet.
The skies erupted with angelic voices declaring, “Glory to God in the highest!”
Wonderful. Counselor. Mighty God!
Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.
With the cry of an infant, heaven invaded earth.
Behold—our Redeemer. Behold—our King.
Behold—the fulfillment of every promise.
Behold—the sound that broke four hundred years of silence.
Not the roar of an army. Not the shout of a king claiming His crown.
But the fragile cry of God-with-us.
He did not arrive with a sword in His hand, but with nails already written into His future.
He did not enter wrapped in royalty, but in cloths that foretold a burial. The silence was not just broken, it was answered.
Every unanswered prayer. Every tear cried into the dark.
Every generation that waited without seeing.
Every promise that seemed delayed but not denied. All of it converged in that single cry.
That night, heaven did not just speak- heaven gave. God did not send another prophet.
He did not send another sign.
He sent Himself.
And in that stable, eternity took its first shallow breath. Omnipotence learned weakness.
Glory learned humility. Love made itself small.
The cry that shattered the silence would one day be echoed again- not from a manger, but from a cross.
The first cry said, “He has come.”
The final cry would say, “It is finished.”
From swaddling cloths to grave clothes, from a feeding trough to a borrowed tomb, He came to be broken so we could be made whole.
And even now, that sound still reverberates.
It calls the weary. It awakens the forgotten.
It reaches into the places where heaven has felt silent again.
If God could speak through the cry of a baby, He can still break silence in our darkest night.
So behold Him.
Not distant.
Not untouchable.
Not unmoved.
But Emmanuel.
God. With. Us."
SUCH TREMENDOUS AND EXPRESSIVE WORDS!
DEAR PERSON, WHO MAY BE LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST OR READING IT IN PRINTED FORM.
Talk to Jesus.
Cry.
Ask Him to show you his love, his true self, his kindness.
His merciful forgiveness.
He’s listening.
LET’S PRAY BEFORE I END THIS PODCAST.
"Heavenly Father,
For Those Who Are Lonely This Christmas,
I Pray That You Would Surround Them With Your Presence.
Let Them Feel Your Nearness.
Bring People Into Their Lives Who Can Offer Companionship and Comfort.
Help Them To Know That Even When They Feel Alone, Abandoned or Weary That They Are Never Truly Alone Because You Are Always With Them.
Heal the Wounds That the Holidays Have Opened.
Replace Sorrow With Your Joy, Despair With Your Hope, and Loneliness With the Knowledge That You Will Never Leave Us or Forsake Us.
Thank You That Jesus Came To Heal the Brokenhearted and to Bind up our Deep Wounds From Life on Planet Earth.
I Trust You To Do That Work in my Life and in the Lives of all Who Are Hurting This Christmas.
Father, This Christmas I Celebrate the Birth of my Savior With a Grateful Heart.
Help Me To Never Get Over the Wonder of the Gospel, Never Stop Being Amazed That You Loved Me Enough To Send Jesus.
May my Life Be a Living Thank-You Note for the Gift You Gave at Christmas—the Gift of Your Son, my Savior and my King.
In the Comforting Name of Jesus, Amen."
I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS PODCAST!
I know that we are fast approaching that day we celebrate and give gifts and just sit back and enjoy the beauty of the season, but, I know many people suffer during this time and, Jesus is there with you.
He’s understands you’re suffering and he understands where you’re stuck.
I encourage you to not hold onto those things that you want to manage or control or that you think, “This is just the way it’s going to, be it’s always been this way.”
That is fatalistic thinking and it’s really actually ungodly.
It’s an attitude that says, “I will control my destiny, and... I have control over my life because nobody else can help me.”
I ENCOURAGE YOU TO SOFTEN, TO TENDERIZE YOUR HEART BEFORE THE LORD IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, and as you listen to Christmas carols and hear the words of “Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come, Let Earth Receive her King and Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room.”
That means it’s up to us to “prepare room” in our hearts to receive what the king has for us.
All the things the King has for us.
Some of it is discipline.
Some of it is change.
Some of it is repenting for just being angry ,
and, some of it is walking in fear.
Know this, that if we will prepare a room for him to come in and live and dwell, we can enjoy His presence in a greater way with us during this season and into the next year.
I’M GOING TO CLOSE OUT FOR NOW
AND I WANT TO THANK YOU AGAIN FOR LISTENING!
I want to thank those of you who have been so kind to support and assist me.
Honestly, I am just so grateful because I just don’t know how I would really do these without those that are touched and moved by God to assist is publishing this podcast and also to assist me in helping others with counseling who have a lower incomes, or, who are going through difficulties where their income is so tight, and they need that counseling, they need that help.
WHEN YOU HELP BLESS AND SUPPORT WHAT THE LORD HAS ASKED ME TO DO OFTEN I’M ABLE TO DO A LOT OF PRO BONO WORK because I know there’s a little bit more in that bank account for ministry that I can then draw on.
Steve and I live very frugally. We don’t have big mansions and we certainly aren’t driving any Rolls-Royce’s, yet God seems to always come through and provide in ways that truly humble us. Part of that is those that God moves on, and those that listen to him and do support what God has called us to do in these days.
I thank you again, and I asked that he pours out a blessing upon you in grace and in kindness and in peace for your kindness and grace back to me.
I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY MOST PEACEFUL AND BLESSED AND JOYFUL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY SEASON!
I will close this podcast out now and send my love and blessing to each one you!
Merry Christmas!
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Thank You! Copyright © 2025
" THE MESSENGER " - "The Advocate of Hope"
Mary Lindow
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