As we go through times of suffering and sorrow, we inevitably come into contact with those who would seek to comfort us. Some offer true help and true hope while others, unfortunately, do not. In this short but sweet quote, Theodore Cuyler reflects on what we need most in our times of affliction.

There are some of us who have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of affliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten by a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotyped prescriptions for comfort!
“Time must do its work,” was one of them. As if time could bring back the dead, or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory!
“Travel,” is another of these quack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery!
Wretched comforters are they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers, charm they never so wisely.
Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh the Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God’s exceeding great and precious promises my strength has begun to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me the burden grew lighter,—yea, it carried me and the load likewise. God opened to me paths of usefulness which were in the line of His service, and also of blessings to my fellow-men. And so help flowed down to me from the hills like the streams that make music from the precipices to one who climbs the Wenzern Alp.

Christmas will be here before long and with it the opportunity to focus deliberately on the birth of Jesus Christ. I know that many individuals and families will be looking for some kind of special reading to carry them through the holiday season and for that reason I thought I’d provide a roundup of recommended advent devotionals. For the most part these devotionals offer 24 or 25 readings, though some offer a few more than that. Take a look and see if there’s something here for you! (Okay, yes, Christmas is still a ways off, but it can take some time to make a decision, have the books shipped, and so on…)

The Good Book Company is the undisputed leader in this area and has published quite a number of advent devotionals that are suitable for individuals or families and that each follow a similar structure. The Dawn of Redeeming Grace and Love Came Down at Christmas by Sinclair Ferguson are collections of daily readings for advent. In each of them, Ferguson offers 24 devotionals. The Dawn of Redeeming Grace draws from Matthew 1-2 while Love Came Down at Christmas draws from 1 Corinthians 13. Repeat the Sounding Joy by Christopher Ash is similar in format and focuses on the first two chapters of Luke; David Mathis’ The Christmas We Didn’t Expect draws broadly from the Christmas narrative. New this year is Jared Wilson’s Gifts of Grace and Lizzie Lafferton’s The God of Amazing Gifts.
From Tim Chester you’ll find a trio of options: One True Light, One True Gift, and One True Story. Each offers 24 devotional meditations along with ideas for reflection, prayer, and application.
Specifically for children, you can consider Barbara Reaoch’s A Better Than Anything Christmas and A Jesus Christmas. For the whole family, consider The Light Before Christmas or Prepare Him Room by Marty Machowski or The Adventure of Christmas by Ed Drew.
John Piper has written a couple of advent devotional works: Good News of Great Joy and The Dawning of Indestructible Joy each containing 25 readings of about 1.5 pages each. Paul David Tripp’s Come, Let Us Adore Him is oriented toward family use and has slightly longer devotionals of a few pages each. Ronnie Martin’s The God Who Is with Us releases in a few days.
Hosanna in Excelsis: Hymns and Devotions for the Christmas Season by David and Barbara Leeman offers devotionals based on hymns that begin on November 25 and continue all the way through to January 6. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s The First Songs of Christmas also focuses on songs, though in this case the songs of Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and Simeon. Philippa Ruth Wilson’s Brightest and Best is structured around the words of the best-loved Christmas carols.
That should give you plenty to choose from, and I hope there’s something that stands out to you.

Do you remember the weeks and months leading to the release of Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King? Do you remember the buzz and anticipation that reached its crescendo in December of 2003? We had already enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, films that had transported us to Middle Earth and gotten us deeply engaged in Tolkien’s world, characters, and lore. We knew it had all been leading to this—to the journey into Mordor, to the ascent of Mount Doom, and to the culminating battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil. We were ready. We were waiting. We were excited.

What none of us felt in the lead-up to the final film was fear or dread. We did not fear or dread the film because we knew it was right that a story that had begun should come to its close. We may have felt an element of sorrow that the story was ending and we would need to bid farewell to characters we had come to love, but we knew that it was good for us to come to its final chapter. And we longed to see and experience it.
There are many people who live in fear of old age, many who live in dread of reaching their twilight years. And in many ways this is understandable, for age brings with it inevitable sorrows and challenges. Life’s later years are rarely life’s easiest years, nor its least problematic. They bring the diminishing of abilities, the loss of friends, the narrowing of life’s borders. The Sage spoke truly and universally when he said “the doors on the street are shut … terrors are in the way … the grasshopper drags itself along,” and so on (Ecclesiastes 12).
Yet these years are also precious in the eyes of God and are meant to be embraced rather than dreaded or denied. Old age is the final part of God’s plan for us before we depart earth for heaven. It is the closing chapter of a story. It is the culmination of a tale that has been told since birth. And why should we fear the ending of a story? Why should we despise the fact that a story begun must also end? Should we not anticipate it as the beautiful final act? Should we not determine to close the story in a way that is beautiful and admirable and honoring to God?
We will undoubtedly live out these years with less energy than we once had and with less of the old vim and vigor. We will perhaps have narrowing opportunities and diminishing abilities. Yet this in no way excuses neglect or indolence, for the Lord still has tasks for us to do, still has people for us to bless, still has graces for us to display. He still means for us to live for his glory and for the good of others—for those in our families, in our churches, in our lives. Our tasks are not complete until he has called us home.
As the Lord of the Rings trilogy drew to its close, we saw that the characters who had been naive at the beginning of the story had become wise. The characters who had been weak at the beginning of the story had become strong. Their qualities had grown and their character had been proven. When the credits had finally rolled and the curtain had finally dropped, we left behind characters we had come to know and love, characters who had shown themselves worthy.
And so too for us. It is in old age that the fruit that began to grow in the younger days finally comes to its ripeness. The seeds that were planted many years before are seen to have grown and multiplied. The investments that were made in youth and middle age—investments in character and godliness—are seen to have been wise and discerning. Old age is the crescendo, the climax, the denouement. It is the beautiful and powerful ending to something precious, something wondrous. It is no more to be dreaded than the final chapter of a great story, no more to be feared than the closing film of a trilogy. May God give us grace to live those days well—to live them with courage, to live them with conviction, to live them with hearts fixed firmly on his glory and eyes fixed firmly on his heaven.