Dear Sister,
When we set out the nativity scene each December, we usually find one woman in it. Mary, kneeling in blue beside the manger.
But open your Bible and look again. The story of Christ's birth is full of women: mothers and widows, outsiders and prophetesses, women who waited for decades and women who were written off. Some of them stand right at the manger. Others are tucked into the family tree in Matthew 1, or echo through the prophecies and songs that pointed to that holy night.
Every one of them has something to say to a woman in her second season of life. Let's meet them.
1. Eve: The woman who heard the first promise
The Christmas story doesn't start in Bethlehem. It starts in a garden. Right after the fall, God spoke of the woman's Seed who would one day crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). The very first whisper of a Savior came to a woman on the worst day of her life.
For you, Sister: Your lowest moment is never the end of your story. God often speaks His greatest promises right in the middle of our regrets.
2. Sarah: The woman who laughed at 90
Sarah was told she would have a son long after it made any earthly sense, and she laughed (Genesis 18:12). Yet Isaac carried on Abraham's line, the same line Matthew traces straight to Jesus. Hebrews 11:11 says she "judged Him faithful who had promised."
For you, Sister: You are not too old. God has a long history of starting new things in women everyone else assumed were finished.
3. Rachel: The mother whose tears echo in Bethlehem
Rachel died giving birth on the road to Bethlehem and was buried there (Genesis 35:19). Centuries later, Matthew quotes Jeremiah to describe the grief that followed Jesus' birth: "Rachel weeping for her children" (Matthew 2:18).
For you, Sister: God does not edit grief out of the Christmas story. Your sorrow has a place at the manger too.
4. Tamar: The woman who refused to be forgotten
Tamar was widowed, denied what she was owed, and left to fend for herself (Genesis 38). Her story is messy, yet Matthew names her first among the women in Jesus' genealogy (Matthew 1:3). Judah himself finally admitted, "She has been more righteous than I."
For you, Sister: Being overlooked by people is not the same as being overlooked by God.
5. Rahab: The woman with a past
A Canaanite woman with a reputation, Rahab hung a scarlet cord from her window and risked everything on the God of Israel (Joshua 2). She became the mother of Boaz and the great-great-grandmother of King David (Matthew 1:5).
For you, Sister: Your past does not disqualify you. Faith rewrites family lines.
6. Ruth: The woman who started over
A widow and a foreigner, Ruth left everything familiar to follow her mother-in-law home: "Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God" (Ruth 1:16). She gleaned leftover grain, and God turned her fresh start into the family line of David and of Jesus (Ruth 4:17).
For you, Sister: Starting over is not starting from nothing. It is starting from experience.
7. Hannah: The woman whose song Mary echoed
Hannah isn't in the genealogy, but her voice runs all through the Christmas story. After years of barrenness and prayer, she sang, "My heart rejoices in the LORD" (1 Samuel 2:1). About a thousand years later, Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) closely echoes Hannah's song: God lifting the lowly and filling the hungry.
For you, Sister: Your prayers outlive you. The songs you sing while you wait may be the very words the next generation needs.
8. Bathsheba: The woman Matthew wouldn't leave out
Matthew calls her simply "the wife of Uriah" (Matthew 1:6), a pointed reminder of the sin and heartbreak in her story (2 Samuel 11–12). Yet she became the mother of Solomon, and God kept His promise right through her.
For you, Sister: God can bring redemption out of chapters you never chose and wish you could forget.
9. Elizabeth: The woman who waited the longest
Elizabeth was "well advanced in years" and had lived with the label "barren" her whole married life (Luke 1:7). Then God gave her John the Baptist. When young, pregnant Mary showed up at her door, Elizabeth didn't compete. She blessed her: "Blessed is she who believed" (Luke 1:45).
For you, Sister: This is the calling of the older woman. Mentor the younger ones. Celebrate what God is doing in them. Your encouragement is a ministry.
10. Mary: The woman who said yes
Young, unmarried, and facing whispers she couldn't control, Mary answered the angel with breathtaking surrender: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). Later, as the shepherds marveled, she "kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
For you, Sister: Your yes still matters. It's never too late to say, "Here I am, Lord. Use me."
11. The mothers of Bethlehem: The women who wept
We rarely talk about them, but Matthew does. When Herod ordered the killing of Bethlehem's little boys (Matthew 2:16–18), unnamed mothers carried an unbearable loss. Scripture records their weeping and does not rush past it.
For you, Sister: If Christmas is tender for you this year, you are in good biblical company. The Savior was born into a hurting world precisely because it was hurting.
12. Anna: The 84-year-old prophetess who couldn't stay quiet
I saved my favorite for last. Anna was widowed after only seven years of marriage and spent decades in the temple, fasting and praying (Luke 2:36–37). When Mary and Joseph carried baby Jesus in, Anna recognized Him immediately. She "gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38).
Think about that. One of the very first people to spread the news of Jesus was an elderly widow.
For you, Sister: Your age is not a liability. It is your qualification. Anna had a message, and she shared it. So do you.
What these 12 women teach us
Look at the list again. Widows. Outsiders. Women with pasts. Women who waited for years. Women well past the age when anyone expected anything from them.
God didn't work around these women. He worked through them. And He is not finished with you either.
A prayer for your heart
Lord, thank You for the women of the Christmas story, for their courage, their waiting, their tears and their songs. Like Elizabeth, help me bless the women coming behind me. Like Anna, give me boldness to speak of You. And like Mary, let my answer always be yes. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Which of these women speaks to your heart this season? Tell me in the comments. I'd love to hear.
Ready for your own Anna season?
So many of us reach this stage of life with a message on our hearts and wisdom to share, but no idea how to build something of our own with it. That's exactly why I joined The Home Business Academy. It gave me the training, tools, and community to start a faith-filled online business from home, on my own terms, in my own season.
If you've been sensing that God isn't finished with you yet, I invite you to take a look. Click here to see how The Home Business Academy works.
Merry Christmas, dear one. Your story is still being written.
With love,
Sharon
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