One of the most popular Christmas songs of the season is “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” And if we are not able to be there, we get a little lump in our throat even if we are grown and gone from the toys and tinsel of our childhood.
But currently, there are nearly 85,000 missionaries serving somewhere in the world, usually not close to home.
Most students away from home will arrange to get back but not all will, perhaps not able to afford the trip.
There are so many tragic wars around the globe it is hard to estimate how many service personnel will be away this Christmas, but it will number in the hundreds of thousands.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph knew what it was like to be alone on this special night; two millennia later, we still sing: “His shelter was a stable, And his cradle was a stall; With the poor, and mean, and lowly, Lived on earth our Savior holy” (“Once in Royal David’s City,” Hymns, no. 205).
Just a few short years later that baby would be without company again, declaring that He had “trodden the wine-press alone, . . . and none were with [him],” (Doctrine and Covenants 133:50) fearing in the depths of His suffering that He had been abandoned entirely, even by His Father in Heaven, but understanding of that matter came later, turning Christmas night into one of joy and promises, a night of angels, and stars and salvation, a night for being with loved ones, if we are able.
This Christmas, may I invite you to be, however briefly, a family for someone who is otherwise alone. Loneliness is a painful feeling. Perhaps this Christmas we can bless the life of someone who is still temporarily alone in a manner that makes them feel for a moment or for a meal or for an afternoon that they have been able to make it home for Christmas.
Merry Christmas from our Father in Heaven who never flags nor fails, and from His Only Begotten Son.
Elder Holland
First Presidency Christmas Devotional December 2025
First Presidency Christmas Devotional December 2025
