When the world feels dark, hope has a way of finding us.

Sometimes it comes through the people who stand beside us. Other times, it arrives when we least expect it, reminding us that no matter how uncertain the future may seem, we are never beyond the reach of God's grace.

In Hope Came at Christmas, eleven original stories explore what it means to hold on to hope during the Christmas season.

No two stories take quite the same path. Some unfold in familiar contemporary settings, while others transport readers to the past or imagine futures that are anything but ordinary. From historical fiction to dystopian and speculative tales, this collection offers something different with each turn of the page. Yet beneath their varied settings and storylines, the authors share a common truth: the hope we celebrate at Christmas is found in Jesus Christ, whose light shines even in our darkest moments.

Whether you're a young adult looking for a story that speaks to your own experiences or a reader eager to discover an unexpected take on Christmas, this collection offers a fresh perspective on the season and a reminder that God's hope can reach us wherever we are.

This Christmas, let hope find you.

She’s got a dream school, a nightmare budget, and she’s headed for a doozy of a rude awakening...

Olivia’s goal is within reach. She’s been accepted to her dream school, Vanderbilt University, alma mater of famed comic illustrator Paige O’Donnell. Despite gaining multiple scholarships and grants, Olivia’s just shy of tuition. Desperate, she applies for a $15,000 scholarship offered by the Wonderbrink Foundation, to be awarded to a high-achieving and athletic senior with diabetes. One little problem… Olivia doesn’t have diabetes.

In her quest to pull off a whopper of a lie, Olivia attends a diabetes support group meeting, where she meets and befriends Paul Roberts, a smug yet handsome member of the Sugar Shatterers. Her best friends Xavier and Amber aren’t thrilled about Olivia’s new mysterious, one-sided friendship with superstitious, entitled Paul. Xavier may secretly be a *little* jealous, and the scholarship application deadline rapidly approaches.

Hadley, forced to relocate with her estranged father at age seventeen, searches for belonging. A cancer diagnosis threatens to take her beloved Nonny, and a looming senior project might just break her.

High school senior Hadley is certain she must earn a summer internship at the Office of Naval Research, and she’s pretty darn confident she might! Unfortunately, her world is turned upside down by the news of her grandmother Nonny’s bleak cancer diagnosis. Hadley is forced to relocate from her home in Maryland to Kentucky to live with her estranged father and (gulp!) new step-family. As Hadley prepares to face a world of unknowns, she fears she will lose her beloved Nonny, and her hopes of snagging her dream internship seemingly disappear.

In the midst of adjusting to her new life in the bluegrass, Hadley steps into the unexpectedly pleasant role of half-sister and tackles a daunting senior project interning at a local business, Southern Salvage. Here, Hadley strives to befriend her peer mentor Colton, who seems all too eager to rid himself of a burdensome intern. At first. As Hadley navigates life in an unfamiliar state, school, and family, can she overcome the overwhelming sense she’s disrupted everyone’s happy normal? Is she just an unwelcome inconvenience? She wonders...has God abandoned Hadley Edwards? With the help of her family and Colton, Hadley might just learn the true meaning of “salvaged.”