Christmas is a time for family, friends, happiness, joy, laughter, and celebration.

Unless it isn’t.

I don’t know what your family and your Christmas look like, but I am blessed with a wonderful husband, and we both have close immediate family and lots of fun extended family. We will be doing quite a bit of driving around Christmas and New Year’s so we can spend time with our families.

But I know that isn’t the case for everyone.

Many people don’t have family to celebrate with or they are estranged from their family members, or maybe they are just far away from everyone else. For many people, Christmas is not the “most wonderful time of the year” but instead “the most loneliest time of the year.”

There are many people who are lonely all year-round, but it can be especially noticeable and especially hard when so many people around are celebrating with their relatives. Sometimes even people who are normally looked out for get forgotten around the holiday season.

The Bible has a lot to say about God’s heart for lonely people.

“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Psalm 27:10

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” Psalm 68:5-6

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” Zechariah 7:9-10

There are a lot of other Bible verses too, but God’s word is clear: His heart is for the lonely and those without families. If our hearts are not, how can we call ourselves His children?

Those of us who are blessed enough to have loving people around us cannot neglect those who don’t. There are many ways you can make the lonely feel loved around Christmas time. Maybe it’s something small like making sure they get a gift or a card. Or maybe you can help at a church event for people who are alone for Christmas (many churches have something like this or they collaborate to make one). Or perhaps God is telling you to invite someone who doesn’t have a family to your family Christmas, or to host a gathering with many people who don’t have anywhere else to go. There are tons of possibilities and options, and we all need to grow to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Maybe you’re reading this and you’re thinking “I’m the lonely one. I wish someone would see and understand and reach out.”

If you are going to be lonely this holiday season, first of all you must know that you are loved by God and He sees your pain. As the verses above say, God is near to those who are brokenhearted. Jesus was abandoned by all His family and friends. He understands better than anyone else.

Even if you know this, you still may not always feel it. That’s okay. You can know that God loves you and still feel pain, but it helps to know that God is with you through the pain, for He will never leave you or forsake you.

If you are the lonely person, don’t be afraid to reach out and tell someone what you are going through. As Christians, we should always be observant and looking out for those who are going through tough times, but sadly we don’t always do a good job of this. We are often caught up in our own plans and don’t pay enough attention to the people around us. This doesn’t mean we don’t care, it just means that we are imperfect sinners being renewed by God every day.

If you don’t have somewhere to go for Christmas, or even if you do, but you are still feeling separated and lonely, talk to someone. Tell them what is going on and ask if they know of anywhere you can go, or maybe even just ask if you can join some of their celebrations. You don’t need to be embarrassed. Jesus makes us all family, as we are all children of the King.