Christmas Without A Child

When a parent has lost a child, often they would like to pretend Christmas won't come this year. Some parents change holiday traditions to try and cope with the loss, others don't celebrate at all. It's hard to say how a grieving parent will react to the upcoming holiday.

Children are supposed to outlive their parents. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. It doesn't really matter whether disease or an accident took their child, the parent faces the pain of the loss everyday. Holidays are even worse.

Parents ask themselves, 'How can I possible enjoy Christmas day, never mind the entire season?' They see holiday lights, Christmas trees and passerby with other children filled with glee. All of it makes there loss and pain all that more poignant.

Of course Christmas will come this year, and every year. So what can we do to help to comfort the bereaved? I don't believe there are any right words that can help a parent deal with the holiday at hand. I do believe offering a comforting connection between the parents Christian spirituality and the child's soul can. The right sympathy gift for Christmas will do just that.

It's probably best to

Bible Verses of Love in the New Testament

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:8
Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.



John 3:16
For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not parish but have everlasting life.

Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5:33
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:14
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

1 John 3:18
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.