Hello, friends, and welcome back to Speaking with Joy. You are listening to my special Advent

series, and this week's episode will focus on the theme of The Shepherd. And this week's episode

features a very special guest, who to tell you about, I have to rewind to my childhood Christmases.

Now, in my childhood, the week before Christmas was

associated with the anticipation of a very special cardboard box. This box would arrive in the

mail and inside of this box would be dozens of tiny packages wrapped in six individual wrapping

papers, one of which was each associated with each member of my family.

And to find that out, there was a special key inside, which indicated which wrapping papers

belong to each person. And we would open all of these packages, usually on Christmas Eve,

and they would be delightful things,

they'd be pencils, something fun to wear, something fun to eat. And this very special package,

so personally wrapped and intricately taken care of, was from a very special person. And that is

today's co-host with me, Gwynny. Gwini was my mom's best friend and

also her roommate in her time as a missionary in Poland when it was still communist in the 70s.

And their friendship became this thing that actually blessed our whole family in a way that now all

of us kind of see Gwynny as an adopted

aunt. And I'm so excited to share this week's episode with you, firstly because Gwini is a marvelous

and deep soul whose thoughts and ponderings and dear gentle southern accent will bless you just by

listening to them. But also because our

story of receiving those packages reminds me of something else that I think is important to prepare

our hearts for as we think about Christmas. And that's that those packages we got from Gwini

were not just a delight. They were also a necessary comfort

...