After the unexpected deaths of my aunt last week and a dear friend this week, I have pondered the thoughts of loss at Christmas time.

So many people struggle at this time of year. The empty chair at Christmas dinner, the memories, the lack of companionship shopping for gifts and sharing the joys on Christmas day – all of these things seem to enhance the losses that we experience as those so special to us have gone on to be with the Lord.

I have had the honor, and the sadness, of speaking in the funerals of three loves ones in less than a year-and-a-half. First, my dear father, whom I miss so greatly. His loss was difficult to bear. Then my Aunt Barbara, who suffered so gracefully with cancer. Then my Aunt Brenda, who passed unexpectedly last week. Her funeral was the Sunday before Christmas.

At Aunt Brenda’s funeral, the words of grief and comfort were often accompanied by a statement about how much more difficult death is near Christmas. I began to ponder that thought. The more I did, the more I thought the opposite to be true!

There is no season or time of the year that is filled with more hope than Christmas! The birth of our Savior is the greatest symbol of hope and life that we can find in the history of this world! Christ came and brought us life! Without the true meaning of Christmas, there would be absolutely no hope or comfort in death. All would come to a permanent end. There would be nothing to look forward to beyond the grave.

But because of Christ . . . because of Salvation that came from heaven to manger to cross to grave and rose again with victory over sin, death, and hell . . . we have hope! We have life! And we have eternal life!

I encouraged my family at my aunt’s funeral last Sunday as I encourage all of you who have lost a loved one and are feeling the emotions of that loss this Christmas:

When you open a present on Christmas day, remember that God rolled back the stone and opened the grave, and He will do it again one day very soon!

When you gaze at that Christmas tree, remember the Tree before it, when Christ Jesus paid the price with the ultimate sacrifice that gives us hope each day!

When you see the beautiful color of red everywhere you go this Christmas, remember the blood that Jesus shed to set you free and give you the promise of eternal life!

When you see the Christmas lights decorating houses, stores, and Christmas trees, remember the true Light that shines in every darkness, for “darkness is not dark to our God!”

When you sit to eat your special Christmas dinner, remember that a dinner is being prepared for all of us who believe, a dinner of which we will partake very soon with the Lamb of God and our godly loved ones!

And most of all, remember Matthew 1:23 – “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us!’”

Emmanuel is with us! He came to be with us then, and He is with us today!

Matthew 28:20  “… I am with you always.”

Hebrews 13:5  “I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.”

Yes, we grieve the loss of loved ones, but we really do have a promise that gives us hope, and that promise is never seen more vividly than during this beautiful time of the year.

May God grant you the most wonderful Christmas and fill you with His hope and peace on this special day and each day of the coming year, and may 2011 be the year that the trumpet sounds and we meet Jesus in the air!

His servant,

Tom Grassano