I pray for anyone who has lost a loved one this year.  Christmas should be a most wonderful time when we celebrate our saviors birth.  But if you have lost someone you love, Christmas can be very difficult.

Thirteen years ago I lost my parents in a house fire.  It was the most devastating thing I have ever been through.  It was difficult enough just handling the tremendous grief, but then came Christmas.  I had not anticipated how hard it was going to be.  No more celebrations in their home.  No more seeing my brothers and their families at mama and daddy’s.  Even though I had a family of my own, I still felt like an orphan with no home.  Everything had changed.

Even now I still miss them terribly.  We have all adapted somehow.  We still get together with my family each Christmas, just not on Christmas day.  Each of our families have created their own holiday traditions.  But every now and then, I still think about those Christmas mornings when I was young.  We never had a lot of money to spend but that was not important.  It was the special love that I felt for those two people who raised me.  I know I will see them again in Heaven.

If you have lost someone you love this year, I encourage you to pray for God to give you the strength you need to see the holidays through.  You will make it, and it’s okay to cry.  Don’t let anyone tell you how you should feel.  That’s between you and God.  Please have the best Christmas possible and cling to the knowledge that we will all be reunited again one day in paradise!

Blessings,

Marie