And the Lord Remembered Her

"And the LORD remembered her." (1 Samuel 1:19)

I pulled Freckles from the bookshelf, opened the yellowed pages, and rediscovered her note: 

To Jill, 

Hope all your Christmases are happy. 

Love, Dot 

Christmas '65

In my mind's eye, the ghost of Christmas past took me to the small, wood-paneled living room atop Alabama's Lookout Mountain...

A fire crackled and popped in the stone fireplace. Three red stockings trimmed in white hung on the mantle, and nine-year-old me remembered her. 

My unmarried, childless Aunt Dot's life on earth would not be described as particularly happy, but she wished happy Christmases for a little niece that loved her.

In the Old Testament book of First Samuel, after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, a childless woman named Hannah wept bitter tears as she prayed to the LORD. She vowed, "O LORD of Heaven's Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to You."

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, returned home to Ramah. And the LORD remembered her plea, and in due time she gave birth to a son.

Oh, dear one, stormed tossed and not comforted, the LORD sees your brokenhearted tears and hears your desperate pleas. Trust Jesus. He has not forgotten you.