Christmas time is nearly always portrayed in the media as a happy, positive, encouraging season but that is simply not always the case. The good news is that our God knows that.

When the sun sets tonight and it’s Christmas Eve, some will be filled with emptiness, loneliness, and grief. Christmas Eve is often the accumulation of weeks of fearful anticipation of just that. It’s time to see what it is to experience Christmas without a loved one because death has stolen their love from you, or the justice system has distanced them behind bars, or it could be as simple as the miles between you and yours leave you feeling abandoned.

That’s the sad news. It’s the news of the human experience brought upon us because of sin. Sin separates and separation causes the best of us to default to fear.

Now here is the good news. In Luke 2:10-11 we have what I think is the greatest part of the Christmas story when the angels appear to the shepherds in the field and said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (ESV).

Don’t fear this Christmas, but if you do, take heart that Christ the Lord is born for you.