Some Thoughts on Christmas Day

Some Thoughts on Christmas Day
Thursday, December 25, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Encouraging words / Hope in Christ / Thought for Today

Christmas day. What do you see on social media? Perhaps you find lots of posts from families wishing everyone a merry Christmas. Perhaps you find posts about Christ’s birth. Perhaps you find lots of ads and Santa stuff.

For many, finding the first type of post is most common. Christmas is a day for family gatherings, exchanging presents, and for some, celebrating Christ’s birth. But the emphasis is typically on family.

But what if you are alone? What if you have no immediate family? What if you just lost a spouse either to death or divorce, a child, other relatives, or a close friend? Under those circumstances, the time can be, more than anything, a time of loss, discouragement, perhaps of regret. Under those circumstances, “Merry Christmas,” can sound particularly hollow, even perhaps maddening or in a strange way, cruel: anything but “merry”. It can be a day of feeling forgotten, alone.

How much better to focus on what Christ did on this day, rather than our circumstances. Do we really understand? God came to earth and was born of a woman, becoming human himself. If there is one thing the world, and other religions scoff at, it is that. Islam screams that God did not have a Son, to believe that is to be guilty of the ultimate blasphemy. Does Islam offer hope? No. Does Islam offer fear and terror? Yes. But, the truth is, unlike them, we have a living hope. As Christ has promised, he will return.

It is hard to grasp the miracle of Christ’s birth. In many ways, it is beyond human understanding. God becoming man? It defies human categories. But for those of us who find ourselves physically alone today, Jesus offers a real eternal hope.

The biblical truth is that everyone is otherwise lost, everyone is a slave to sin, everyone was destined to spend eternity apart from God, isolated from Him, ultimately alone. Jesus Christ’s coming to earth changed all of that.

Through faith in Him we can have a future and a hope. One finds throughout the Scriptures God’s special concern for widows and orphans, those who are otherwise alone, the downtrodden, the brokenhearted, the discouraged. What did Jesus say, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be filled.” Our weeping may endure for a night, but joy will follow.

Though Christ, we have eternity to look forward here. Life here on earth may entail much suffering, but it is not the end. Our circumstances here may be quite difficult—think of the Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria and elsewhere—but it is not the end. As God, through the book of Hebrews, speaks about Jesus, knowing the joy set before him, he endured the shame of the cross.

This Christmas day, which emotionally may be a particularly difficult day, let us remember to focus on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Regardless of our circumstances, through him we can find genuine hope.

Share This Blog: