🎄 A December Mini-Series: Advent of Love

Focusing on the traditional Advent themes: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love

❤️ Love — God With Us, Always

“Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” — Romans 8:39

🎄 When Love Feels Both Beautiful and Bittersweet

Christmas seems to come faster and faster each year, just like the years of my birthday! When you are missing loved ones, those bittersweet times seem to hit on a regular basis, just like the seasons. While the wrapping paper goes into the trash bags and the decorations eventually come down, there is one thing that remains and will never go away: the LOVE of God. After the excitement of Christmas morning fades, God’s love doesn’t. You may feel disappointed, sad, and afraid to return to “normal life” as the returning ache of missing someone comes, but God’s love remains steady even when those feelings shift.

🌟 Emmanuel — God With Us Everywhere and Always

This closing Advent post for 2025 reflects on Emmanuel — God with us — and reminds children (and readers) that even as the holidays end, His love stays. Emmanuel means “God with us everywhere and always,” not just at Christmas. Jesus Himself is LOVE. He came to earth in a manger, resting in a feeding trough for animals, but He IS God and remains LOVE in our everyday lives.

🌱 Stepping Into a New Year With God’s Love

As you enter the new year, reflect on how this new year can feel uncertain and how sometimes children (and the rest of us) sometimes worry about what’s ahead. When someone we love is no longer with us, the holidays feel different, both before and after. But more important than reflecting on those feelings that follow any special occasion is the fact that God’s love goes with you into every new chapter. God’s love holds our hearts, even on the days that feel quiet and lonely.

💛 Love in Action: Helping Children Share God’s Love

One way to walk through the holiday season is to empower children to offer love through kindness to a friend, a hug for a sibling, or a prayer for someone who is hurting. God’s love doesn’t stay still. It moves through us to comfort, to heal, and to bring hope.

His love endures forever. – Psalm 136:1
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful. – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Here are some ideas for starting the new year in a positive way, while dealing with loss.

🏺 Love Jar Activity

Place a jar somewhere central in the home. Throughout the new year, write down:

• moments when you feel God’s love

• things or people you’re grateful for

• ways you show love to others

Next Christmas or on New Year’s Eve, read the slips together.

🙏 Love Prayer for Families

Jesus, thank You for loving us every day.
Stay with us in the new year.
Help us feel Your love when we’re happy and when we’re sad.
Show us how to share Your love with others.
Amen.

💞 Love Blessing

May you walk into the new year knowing
God loves you deeply,
holds you gently,
and stays with you always.

✨ Closing Blessing

God goes before you into the new year
God stays beside you
God holds your heart with a love that never ends

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! Thank you for reading my words. I pray they have been helpful and hopeful!

📚 More Hope-Filled Resources, Just for You

Check out my website at https://marygracejohnsonauthor.com and download the “Seven Affirmations of Hope” for free.

I also have two collaborative books available on Amazon:
Hope for the Holidays: Stories and Traditions for a Peaceful Season (2024) and the new 365-day devotional, A Year of Hope (2025).

Soon to be released !

And the Sun Came Up: A True Story of Grief and Hope, my picture book, and an accompanying hope activity journal, Sunlight for the Soul: A Hope Journal for Kids Walking Through Sadness (ages 4-10). I will be looking for launch team members to participate in this book release where there will be giveaways, behind-the-scenes updates, and early access to the book!