Losing someone you love is never an easy thing to bear, but it is even more difficult when it happens near the holidays.  I lost my sister, my last sibling, last year a week before Thanksgiving.  It was totally unexpected and all happened so fast.  Actually, I was at the Cleveland Clinic having surgery the day before she passed.  I couldn’t even be with her.  By the time I got to the Toledo Hospital, Brenda was already in a coma and nearly brain dead.  I hate the fact that we never got to say “Good-bye”.

I know we will meet again, but sometimes I just want to hear her laugh and feel her touch.  I spend lots of time with her family and makes it a little easier.  We always get together on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts.  We decided to continue the tradition even though Brenda is gone.

About two weeks ago of one our dear friends lost his mother to cancer.  She and her husband had been married over 50 years.  This will be a rough Christmas for them.  We have to go the funeral home tomorrow night for two neighbors that we have known since childhood.   One is an older lady who lived a full life, the other is the 33 year old daughter of my childhood friend.  I can’t even imagine the loss of a child.  How terrible that must be at any age.

Suffering these kinds of losses is awful whenever it happens.  However, when we face the holidays so soon after the loss it can be quite traumatic.  We pray, we hope, we cry, but nothing changes the fact; they are gone.  The only thing we can do is remember all the good times we shared, look at pictures of happier times; and realize that our grieving is not for the one who has gone on, but for those of us left behind.  They are in a better place.  What could be better than spending Christmas with Jesus?

So if you have experienced the recent loss of a loved one, remember to “Keep your eyes on Jesus”.  He is our high tower, our comfort, our strength, and “the reason for the season”.  He understands our loss and our pain and only He can bring us that peace that passes all understanding.  He is the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting God, and our all in all.