I'm a tad late with finishing this, it's Lent now, not Advent, but God is year-round, so I'm going to say books about Him are as well.

I am slanted in the positive to this author. Many moon ago, my old church had a Bible study and we studied Higgs' "Bad Girls of the Bible" and watched her video along with reading the book. Man, that woman has been touched by the Spirit. She is so down-to-earth and honest and has a fantastic sense of humor. I will read anything she has written. She has authority and knowledge and she shares it with the world.

So when I saw that she had written about the Women of Christmas, I was ALL over it. And then had no time to read during the season of Advent, because who has time to do ANYthing when Christmas is a few weeks away?

So this was pushed back to Lent. Not so odd, Advent and Lent are connected, though to be fair, Lent is more contemplative than Advent, if only because Christmas has been commercialized and they still haven't found a way yet to do that with Lent. I really hope they don't. I can only imagine the commercials for it. (Only $9.99, get your Crucified Jesus (TM) Action Figures today!!! Complete with Nails (TM) and Spear (TM) Act now for your very own Empty Tomb (TM) playset and Mary Action Figure (TM)!!!)

But I digress. And really, REALLY hope that never comes to pass. Though that is more Easter than Lent. Kind of hard to commercialize, I hope.

Anywho, this book was about Elizabeth, Mary and Anna, three central female figures from the Christmas story. I love how Higgs talks about these women as regular women, like you and me, albeit women who were dedicated to God and obeying Him and how by serving Him, they and the world, were blessed amazingly.

Higgs is big on saying Biblical characters were real, like us. They had hopes, fears, dreams and discouragements, just like us. And we can be like them by following in their faith footsteps. If regular people from 2,000 years ago could be open to the Holy Spirit, we can too. God loves us all, even before Jesus came to pay for our sins, when we were mired down in the muck of our sins, He still loved us and asked us to be a part of His great plan to save us and reconcile us to Him.

That's what blows my mind, He asked ordinary people to be a part of His saving grace. He could have just snapped His proverbial fingers and POOF! Instant Jesus who saves us all! But no, He asked Mary to carry Jesus for nine months in her body, when she had no husband, a dangerous thing in those days, to give birth to and raise the Son of God, who would one day be sacrificed to save us all.

She said yes. And so can we. Not to the same exact thing, but to being open to the Holy Spirit, to listen and serve the Lord, like Anna in prayer and in church, to praise and sing, like Elizabeth and Mary.

Very deep, thought provoking book. Good for any season, Christmas, Lent or Ordinary Time. 4 solid stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

I loved this book and have already purchased it for my church library. It tells the Christmas story from the viewpoints of three women: Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Anna, the prophetess at the temple where Jesus was presented by his parents. Really liked the way the author used scripture to tell their stories. A great read for Advent.
Note: I received this book free of charge from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.