If you are hurting this holiday season, remember:
Christ is the hope for the broken-hearted. Pain is real. He felt it. Heartbreak is inevitable. He experienced it. Tears come. His did. Betrayal happens. He was betrayed.
He knows. He sees. He understands. He loves deeply, in ways we can’t even fathom. When your heart breaks at Christmas, when the pain comes, when the whole thing seems like more than you can bear, you can look to the manger. You can look to the cross. You can remember the hope that comes with His birth.
The pain won’t leave. But His hope will swaddle you tight. His gentle mercy will hold you until you can breathe again. What you long for this holiday may never be, but He is and is to come. You can trust that, even in your holiday hurts.
Be patient and kind to yourself. Give yourself extra time and space to process your hurt and reach out to others around you if you need extra support.
Find a cause to invest in. There is a saying, “grief is just love with no place to go.” Find a cause that honours the memory of a loved one. Giving time or money to a suitable charity can be helpful, as it gives expression to the love in your heart.
Create new traditions. Hurt changes us. Sometimes it is helpful for us to change our traditions to create a new normal. If you have a holiday tradition that feels unbearable, don’t do it. Instead, consider doing something new… Creating new traditions can help alleviate some of the added sadness old traditions often bring.
Today, you may be overwhelmed, bruised, and broken, but there is still goodness to be welcomed and blessings to be claimed this season, even in pain. There will be holidays in the future when you will feel stronger and lighter, and these very difficult days are part of the road to them, so accept whatever gifts God has for you. You may not fully open them for years, but unwrap them as the Spirit gives you strength, and watch the heaviness and hurt disappear.
“And in the same way the Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts: for we are not able to make prayer to God in the right way; but the Spirit puts our desires into words which are not in our power to say.” (Rom 8:26)
Let’s Pray
Yahweh, thank You for Your greatness. Thank You that when I am weak, You are strong. Father, the devil is scheming, and I know he desires to keep me from spending time with You and loved ones this holiday. Don’t let him win! Give me a measure of Your strength so that I might not give into discouragement, deception, and doubt! Help me honour You in all my ways, in Jesus’ Name! Amen.
