A child yearns as at no other time in the days leading up to Christmas. That yearning doesn’t entirely go away as we grow older. It still lingers in the backs of our minds. We imagine that Christmas is mainly for children and our adult lives don’t stop in the way that children’s lives stop on Christmas morning, so we don’t give ourselves time to notice the yearning. But it’s there – hope mingled with anxiety about what lies ahead. In The Gospel of Christmas, Patty Kirk helps us get in touch with our muted hopes and fears and reminds us that they are met and given their resolution in the coming of Christ, which Christmas celebrates and Advent anticipates, and all our lives prepare us for.
Patty Kirk
Patty Kirk is writer in residence and associate professor of English at John Brown University. She is an award-winning writer and author of Confessions of an Amateur Believer and Starting from Scratch: A Wandering Cook in Search of Home.