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3. The Spirit filled my heart. Christ was born to be my friend in trials! He wasn't born so we could have cute treats and big shows. He wasn't born so we could feast together, or fly on airplanes to gather on December 25th, or eat ham, or have big happy perfect families. He was born because we are weak and imperfect and our lives are difficult and messy and we need Him. He was born to comfort us and assure us that all our tears will be dried in the end, not because there's something wrong with having tears along the way. That year, my little family spent December 25th as visitors to a locked psychiatric facility. We brought in some food that ward members had provided because they suspected (correctly) that we didn't have Christmas dinner. We ate ham and potatoes and green beans off foam plates with flexible spoons. A ward family brought us a tree, and others donated presents to the children. We decided not to open them on Christmas day, but left them untouched until early in January when our daughter returned home to join with us. It was the worst Christmas we ever had. But also the best. Because that was the year I learned that Christmas as an event doesn't matter. The Lord knows a thing or two about difficult days, and is no stranger to our weakness. But He was our Friend that year. I wouldn't trade it for anything. ' If this year, your Christmas celebrations are less than ideal, I would invite you to think of yours not as a sad/disappointing/lonely Christmas, but as a more authentic one. You have the chance this year to celebrate a different kind of Savior'a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, a man betrayed and misunderstood, a man abandoned, a man who loves us far more reliably than we love Him. He deserves all the joy and rapture and celebration and lights and music and public acclaim we can possibly assemble; He loves to be remembered through the gathering of friends and family and the giving of gifts and service and worshipful song. One day, when all things are subject to Him, our sorrows will be erased and our tears wiped away and every lonely Christmas forgotten, and on that day our rejoicings will be echoed in the heavens. But that day has not yet come. If you are suffering this Christmas, you are the reason for the season. The loneliness and difficulty you feel in this mortal realm are precisely why we have a Savior and a Comforter. It is not about having the 'perfect day'; it is about looking forward to the truly perfect day when all sickness of body and mind will be healed, when our loved ones will be restored to us again, and when the tears will be dried from all faces. Christmas isn't just for big happy families with lots of money for presents. It is for you too. It is the promise God has made that, even though you are lonely and suffering now, He has overcome all things for your good. Claim this Christmas as your own, yours and your Savior's, and it will be. Merry Christmas.

⁠— Kim White