A Prayer for Grief During the Holidays

Father, the lights are up and the songs are playing, and all of it lands like salt on an open wound. Everyone seems to be celebrating, and I am quietly breaking, missing someone who should be here.

There is an empty place at the table this year, a stocking that will not be filled, a tradition that has no one to share it. The joy all around me only deepens how much I miss them.

I bring this strange and lonely ache to You, the gap between the festive world outside and the grieving one inside me. I do not have to fake a smile in Your presence.

Help me through these heavy days. Give me grace to honor the one I lost without pretending I am not sad. Let me find small moments of real comfort tucked inside the hard ones.

You came into the world in the middle of its darkness, born as light for people sitting in deep shadow. Be that light for me this season, gentle and near.

I give You these holidays exactly as they are, bittersweet and broken. Sit at my empty chair, and carry me to the new year. Amen.