The First Nativity Pageant in Heaven: A Martyr's Happy Ending

"I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and now I just pray for the grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The pain will soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above! ... I must keep calm and still these hours. I do not regret coming to China, but am sorry I have done so little. My married life, two precious years, has been so very full of happiness. We will die together, my dear husband and I ... If we escape now, it will be a miracle." So wrote Elizabeth "Lizzie" Atwater to her family in the United States.

Lizzie's dream of becoming a missionary to China was fulfilled. She met her husband at the mission-a widower with four little girls who captured her heart. Then, the political climate changed, and Christian foreigners were suddenly the enemy. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, this true story of missionaries who were faithful unto death will inspire you.

The second part of the book will tease your imagination as you watch a heavenly pageant unfold. It is fun to picture heaven's coming glories that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard...the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." How God will handle Lizzie's unborn baby at the resurrection sparked Arthur Caviness' mind speculating with a heaven-focused imagination about how women who died while pregnant will be raised to life when Jesus comes. Will they still be pregnant and give painless birth in heaven to a perfect baby? Or will the baby be resurrected separately? Of course, we do not know the answers to these questions, but we do know that our loving Jesus will do the right thing.