The Week of Hope
You are our living hope, Lord, as we celebrate your promises for our present and our future on your birthday. We are your grateful people. Amen
Weekly Advent Prayers by Betty Claire Jackson
By Lisa Shinkins
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
As I read this verse and thought about what to write about it; I kept thinking back to the day I found out I was pregnant with Killian. I was in a taxi on the way home from the Farah Hospital in Amman, Jordan. Kieran and I had been praying and praying for a child and, at that time, had gone through three miscarriages and were on the seventh round of IVF. I was so excited and scared at the same time. I remember the joy I felt at the news because my hormone numbers were great but I was terrified that this pregnancy would fail just like the rest of my pregnancies. To me the “sign from the Lord Himself” was the high hormone levels. Obviously, the pregnancy was successful as Killian Gerald Shinkins was born on January 31, 2013.
As you go through this Advent season, my prayer is that you focus on what Immanuel means — “God with us.” God is with us through every season in our life, even though sometimes we may not feel his presence. As Kieran and I went through all of our struggles with our pregnancies, we clung to the hope that God would grant us a child. Never did we dream that we would have two healthy children. God does fulfill all his promises to us. He did that through the birth of Immanuel.