Do not fear" is said 365 times in the bible. That's one for every day of the year! ♡

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.I will strengthen you and help you.I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.Isaiah 41:10

Tonight, I joined my wife at Heritage Christian Academy for a great time singing Christmas songs and seeing a one-man drama. I was blessed by the Music performed by some of the Heritage choir and orchestra students, and I was blessed by this one man drama entitled 'Celebrate the Child' performed by Jonathan Swensen. There was one scene that brought me close to tears when he was saying goodbye to his child that died. I choked back tears reflecting on the night years earlier where, like the actor in this production, I too said goodbye to the little girl who left us much sooner than we had like.

When the production was over I walked over to the guy who played all the characters of the production and told him how that one scene brought back memories of our loss. I shared the God story from that first Sunday our family went to Church for the first time without our daughter when son thought about what I had said before it occurred to him that going to Church to honor our Lord should never be based on how we are feeling at the time.

Ten years later my son texted me and asked if I remember that conversation we had. He said that was a pivotal moment in his life because he was angry with God for taking his sister, but then he said:" when I saw that my dad wasn't going to quit, he wasn't going to quit either." The thought occurred to me that your children will do the things you do. Our job as parents is to show our children what it means to honor God when we do not feel like it.

At that point, Jonathan said that before he was born his parents lost a child and he remembers when they went to the gravesite how broken up they were- 30 years later- when they broke down crying as though the wounds of their grief were still raw. Then he said," it doesn't matter how old the child is when death occurs because there is nothing that prepares a parent for outliving their child.

As we talked, I learned that his ministry includes doing drama for grief workshops, camps, etc. My mind at that point started thinking all kinds of possibilities about pulling together an all-day conference on grief and including drama, music and encouraging teaching from those 'who've been there'.

Whether we know it or not, our God is in absolute control of our lives. God's greatest gift was sending his Son into a hurting world filled with people looking for a purpose. We may feel miserable walking into Church after the loss of our loved one, but the same Jesus who escorted your loved one to heaven is the same Jesus walking with you, and sometimes carrying you, through your journey of grief.

Because of that thought, you have reason to not be afraid of the cascading emotions broadsiding you and have a reason to celebrate the birth of Christ!