I’ve never cried for a book release before, until about 1 o’clock this morning, and then again around 9:00 AM while drinking my morning coffee. (And if I’m being honest, I’ll probably cry again before the day is up)

I’ve spent the last five years publishing or actively working to publish books. In that time, I’ve now published four novels, four special hardcover editions of those novels with additional Bible studies, one devotional, and one novella. But something about this book release was different.

Maybe it’s because this book is the last book in the Generations of Faith series (or the first one, depending on how you read them since it is a prequel and can be read as a standalone), or maybe it’s just because it’s a Christmas book and I’m the type to cry at every Christmas book, movie, and cute holiday commercial. Or maybe it’s because publishing this book taught me more than ever about who I am as an author, and who God is as the author of my story.

I looked at this cover, that “LIVE” notification on Amazon, the invoices and the emails letting me know orders were going to be fulfilled, and I couldn’t help but cry. I realized there were so many little things that led me to this very moment, beyond just tapping at keys and scribbling notes on every surface. This story had been building in my heart since I was a little girl, in ways that only God could imagine.

It’s been building since my very earliest Christmases, when I used to be fascinated and amazed by the wondrous twinkling lights.

It’s been building since my parents took me to my first Christmas pageants and “Living Nativity” events.

It’s been building since I first accepted Jesus as my Savior on January 13, 2002, and a couple of years later when, at six, I sang the words “Happy birthday, Jesus / I’m so glad it’s Christmas / All the tinsel and lights / And the presents are nice / But the real gift is You” in a solo for my own school/church’s pageant—something that felt like the biggest thing I would ever do at the time. I remember sighing at the end with a big sigh of relief and thinking, “I did it! I did it!” and I meant every word.

It’s been building every year that my family and I have decorated our home nativity display, setting up our special “Bethlehem Village“, reading Luke 2 by the fireplace, and spending so many hours wondering what it would’ve been like to have been there on that very first Christmas night! Little did I know when I was a child of all that was to come; some good, some not-so-good, but every moment shaped by God.

There have been so many moments big and small, seen and unseen between my childhood and the year 2021, when I first began writing novels about the shepherds of Jesus’ time on earth, and now here we are. As I looked back on them I couldn’t help but cry in thankfulness, in gratitude, and in awe of the amazing author our God is! His hand truly is in every detail, bringing us to exactly when and where we need to be, whether that’s here in the 21st century or on a night two-thousand years ago in the humble town of Bethlehem…

Bethlehem’s Daughter is in your hands, and I hope it changes you and inspires you as much as it has me. Now available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover special edition.