We sat across from each other, enjoying a Texas-style breakfast and all the western décor we could imagine. Once or twice a year, we met up to talk about all things Jesus, family, and life. There was always lots of laughter, wise counsel, and girl gab. Before we would part ways and head to our respective homes, we would share prayer requests. And for a good while my dear friend’s request was always the same – “I want to be a grandmother.”

Now let me assure you – my friend was the epitome of Romans 12:15 : “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” She was always first in line to genuinely congratulate and celebrate with her friends who had become grandmothers. But as she watched her friends one by one hold their grandchildren in their arms, her heart hurt just a little. And it wasn’t just that she wanted to be a grandmother – although she certainly did! So much more, it was the pain of watching her precious daughter-in-love suffer through infertility and miscarriage. More than anything, she wanted her daughter-in-love to be a mother.

So she prayed. I prayed. People who loved my friend and her daughter-in-love prayed. It was an agonizing wait. Although we all trusted in God’s timing, holding on to hope was sometimes a struggle. On February 20 of this year, my friend sent me a text: “Guess what, Tiffany! The Lord is sweetly placing a grandbaby in my arms!” And on September 11, Annie Joy landed just where my friend had prayed she would – first in her mother’s arms, then in my friend’s.

There’s truly nothing comparable to holding your first grandbaby – except, of course, holding your first child! Your outlook on the fragility and beauty of life is transformed. The overwhelming feelings of absolute love and adoration mixed with trepidation and the core instinct to protect – they all cave in on you in an instant. As the saying goes – and it’s absolutely true – “A baby changes everything.”

In fact, so universal is that emotional experience that God Himself chose the birth of a Child – His Son – to literally “change everything.”

Isaiah 9:2 says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” And God, in His mysterious, glorious ways, chose to send that Light in the form of a Baby.

That infant Boy entered our world to fulfill prophecies made hundreds of years prior as God’s promised plan to rescue the world began to unfold in a lowly manger. The Light would expose the darkest, most depraved places in every human heart. And that same Light would illuminate the path to soul freedom for all who would turn to Jesus to purify what they could not.

A Baby come to earth in the most humble of circumstances – fulfilling the longing of a young mother’s heart, a world in need, and the angels of heaven – changed everything. Though long awaited, His surprise arrival on the pages of history marked the beginning of God’s kingdom coming to earth. A King in a manger. A bundle of Hope swaddled in a poor girl’s arms. Salvation Himself willingly made vulnerable so that we might know the compassion of a Savior.

The faltering steps of an unsteady Toddler would one day become the faltering steps of our bruised and bloodied Lord stumbling to the cross. This Baby would become the ransom for our souls, and His victory over the grave would throw open the gates of heaven to those willing to humbly accept the greatest gift – faith in a Baby Who came to save the world – and change everything.