Fulfilled: A 28-Day Devotional Journey to Unwrap the Wonder of Christmas

By Erica Barthalow

Are you tired of Christmas as usual?

Do you long to connect with God in a deeper way this Christmas? Has it felt like you've been going through the motions and all of your traditions are lacking meaning? When December 26th hits, do you feel like you've missed the significance of the season, and you're bemoaning the fact that i

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erica Barthalow
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9780998995397

Book preview

Fulfilled_Front_Cover.jpg

Other books by Erica

Praying is (not) Hard

Holy Doubt

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT®. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked csb are from the Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked msg are from The Message® by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked esv are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright ® 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Fulfilled

© 2023 Erica Barthalow

Cover and interior design by KUHN Design Group | kuhndesigngroup.com

Author photo by Seneca Epley

ISBN (Hardcover) 978-0-9989953-8-0

ISBN (Epub) October 2023 978-0-9989953-9-7

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means–electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other–except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America

For my mom,

who was the first to introduce me to

the wonder of Christmas

Contents

Week One:

Connecting

Presence over Presents

Confessions

Silence Speaks

Shattered Silence

Connecting over Consuming

Willingly Waiting

Connection over Conflict

Week Two:

Wonder

Wonder over Weariness

They Followed a Star

A Heavenly Host

A Virgin Conceives

Everyday Obedience

An Expectant Heart

An Unlikely Example

Week Three:

Transformation

Transformation over Traditions

Wreaths

Nativity Sets

Christmas Trees

Advent Calendars

Christmas Lights

Christmas Caroling

Week Four:

Prepare & Receive

Who Do You Say I Am?

Expect to be Surprised

Prepare Him Room

A Savior, Who is Christ the Lord

Til the Season Comes Round Again

You’ll Find It

Come, Lord Jesus

One

Presence over Presents

In your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:11

Stepping into the chaos of what my husband affectionately (or perhaps not so affectionately) refers to as the Christmas crud in our basement storage room to slide yet another plastic tote on the shelf, I was swallowed by a sense of sadness. The season had passed and it would be a whole year before it would be culturally acceptable to listen to Christmas music again (a decidedly depressing fact for an extreme lover of Christmas like myself), but this sadness was laced with something more.

Every year on December 26th (sometimes even on the 25th), I look around at the crumpled gift wrap, the empty boxes, and I feel a familiar ache.

This ache says I’ve missed it. The season has come, and now gone, to celebrate and savor the birth of my Savior and I haven’t done it well. I’ve gotten carried away in meaningless pursuits, more cookies to bake, more shopping to do, the list goes on and on. The Christmas season happened to me instead of happening in me. Maybe you’ve felt this too? Perhaps you’ve been so caught up in the busyness of the season that you forgot to revel in what it’s really all about.

Ultimately, I realized I settled for:

Consuming over connecting

Weariness over wonder

Traditions over transformation

Something needed to change. I was hungry to be fulfilled by Christ alone. My soul begged for a different approach to the season as I entered the chaos of that Christmas storage room. In short, I had settled for a thimble when God has nothing less to give … than the ocean of himself.¹ The title of this book is