Thank you very much for your letter—and I’m sure many readers will want to pray for you and your family, asking God to bless each of you (including your father) in a special way this Christmas. The Bible tells us to “Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison” (Hebrews 13:3).

If you and your family can visit your father around Christmas it will, I’m sure, be a great encouragement to him. But even if you can’t, you can still let him know you love him and miss him; a letter or card each day between now and Christmas would bring him great joy. If it’s possible to send him anything, a little present would also mean much—especially something you made yourself, or some photos of you and your family.

But the most important thing you can do for him is to pray for him—and tell him you’re doing so. Ask God to take away his loneliness, and to fill his life with good things. Most of all, pray he will realize that God loves him just as he is, and Jesus wants to come into his life. The Bible says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

It’s hard to be without your father, especially at Christmas. But you have another Father who will never be absent—and that is your Heavenly Father. Ask Jesus to come into your heart, and then thank Him for being with you every minute of the day.

Do you have the peace of Christ in your heart this season?