Pastor Kathy Escobar's short devotional is sure to be a balm to many a weary soul. I only wished it was longer. Kathy's pastoral heart shines through even as she is speaking from her own deep grief and pain in losing one of her children to death by suicide.

If your grief and sorrow feel like too much, I think you will find at least a little comfort as you read this book.

The book has 28 daily reflections with prayers and suggested practices to honor our pain and struggles during the holiday season. This might be a good devotional for small group studies also.

I will definitely be coming back to this one again.

I love Pastor Escobar's writing. This Advent devotional will come as a welcome balm to many this year. A beautifully practical and vulnerable devotional collection for the season.

“This book isn’t to magnify the hard, pain, and darkness—or the good, happy, and joy. It’s about honoring our weary hearts in a weary season in a weary world and traveling the road of Advent together as honestly as we can on a quest for encouragement, hope, and strength in places we. are currently living—emotionally, spiritually, and physically.” (quote from the introduction to the book)

I appreciated the way this author shares her own story of tragedy and grief. She writes this from a place of understanding how difficult the holidays can be during a time of heartbreak. Reading this book is like sitting down and having a conversation with someone who understands the emotions of the reader. There’s no simple solutions to grief in this book, but there is encouragement and understanding. As the author states in the book, it’s an invitation to “honor exactly where we are today—the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful....To let our weary souls feel a little less alone. This book will not take the place of one-on-one counseling, but it has good Biblical counsel in it.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.