A Christmas Prayer For Lonely Folks

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“Lord God of the solitary,

Look upon me in my loneliness.

Since I may not keep this Christmas in the home,

Send it to my heart.”

Thus wrote Henry Van Dyke in A Christmas Prayer For Lonely Folks.

My heart and thoughts continue to embrace Grace Cabalka’s words:

“Many of us glamorize missionaries, or think that they are somehow more spiritual than the rest of us, that they've been given extra measures of strength to live in difficult circumstances. Not true….”

So, because I spent a number of Christmases on the mission field, away from home and loved ones…

… and because I know some of you are far from home and lonely this Christmas, I offer the rest of Henry Van Dyke’s prayer:

“Let not my sins cloud me in,

But shine through them with forgiveness in the face of the child Jesus.

Put me in loving remembrance of the lowly lodging in the stable of Bethlehem,

The sorrows of the blessed Mary, the poverty and exile of the Prince of Peace.

For His sake, give me a cheerful courage to endure my lot,

And an inward comfort to sweeten it.

Purge my heart from hard and bitter thoughts.

Let no shadow of forgetting come between me and friends far away:

Bless them in their Christmas mirth:

Hedge me in with faithfulness,

That I may not grow unworthy to meet them again.

Give me good work to do,

That I may forget myself and find peace in doing it for Thee.

Though I am poor, send me to carry some gift to those who are poorer,

Some cheer to those who are more lonely.

Grant me the joy to do a kindness to one of Thy little ones:

Light my Christmas candle at the gladness of an innocent and grateful heart.

Strange is the path where Thou leadest me:

Let me not doubt Thy wisdom, nor lose Thy hand.

Make me sure that Eternal Love is revealed in Jesus, Thy dear Son,

To save us from sin and solitude and death.

Teach me to know that I am not alone,

But that many hearts, all around the world,

Join with me through the silence, while I pray in His name:

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

From The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905; in the public domain, courtesy of archive.org