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As you watch the little ones in your immediate or extended families, you know that there’s little to equal the wonder and joy in their eyes as they celebrate the lights, the decorations, the gifts and the festivities. But sometimes we get so frazzled by the preparations that we become impatient with the very ones for whom we’re expending so much time, energy, and money. Remember that children need our loving attention far more than they need another new toy under the tree.

At Christmas we don’t wish each other perfect lives but only “comfort and joy.” This is what I look for: not an end to struggle, but a level of understanding and adjustment so that we can say to each other, “Merry Christmas.”

Many people feel an underlying anxiety due to world events and the challenges of getting along in a complicated world. Christmas allows a break from that gray depression, an inner darkness reflected in the winter sky. Solstice offers symbolic hope that there may be a turn in the “weather.” The turn could take us to more genuine peace, justice, and community—key values in the Jesus teachings and qualities we expect in a renewed life turning more toward the light than the dark.

“O Key of David, O Royal power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heaven: Come break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

Christmas makes sense only if you know the experience of darkness—the experience of not knowing what is going on, not knowing your way, not seeing life for what it is, failing, losing, and suffering. Then the turn toward light has a real impact. The more you know the dark, the more you will appreciate the light.

— from the book The Soul of Christmas by Thomas Moore

God chose to become one of us, letting his human life be shaped by the time and place in which he was born. In the same way our lives are shaped by the world around us. But because of the incarnation, the changes are wrapped in an awareness of eternity, of something beyond us and greater than us, but still intimately part of us. In the midst of all the stress and busyness of the season, this truth reminds us that the true gift of Christmas is something money can’t buy.

Pope Francis writes, “In our personal history too, there are both bright and dark moments, lights and shadows.” As you watch the light of Christmas—twinkling tree lights, the soft glow of candlelight, the tasteful (or garish!) house displays—let your heart recall the lights and shadows of your life and the ways in which God’s love and mercy have been present in both light and darkness.

The journey through Advent brings us to the Christmas celebration of God’s intimate presence in human existence. What we discover is that in our waiting for Christmas, God is with us all the way along the journey. In ancient times, people traveled together for safety and support. Often they needed to set aside differences and overcome a fear of unknown traveling companions because the world outside their caravans held too many threats to travel alone.