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Today might seem as close to perfect as you can imagine.

As much as you can feel, see, taste, hear and touch this Holy Day with all of your senses, there’s a boundless enthusiasm and ecstasy in the joy Christmas brings.

Still, in all of its irony, Christmas can also offer us a bittersweet feeling – perhaps even sadness.

For many the holidays are a difficult time.

This might be the first Christmas you’re celebrating without a loved one. You could be alone this year following a broken relationship. Financial difficulty may have put a strain on gift giving. Health or physical separation could thwart your celebration entirely.

As people of faith, we’re not promised a life without pain.

In the 1943 Academy Award-winning film, “The Song of Bernadette,” the title character often repeats the words the Blessed Virgin spoke to her:  “I cannot promise you happiness in this world, only in the next.”

It’s a comforting message to know that true happiness will come upon our eternal reward.

“No more will you weep,” says Isaiah in the Bible.

God sees your sadness, your depression and your pain.

And yet while we wait, we also find reassurance in a God who will never leave us.

Though we grieve or struggle, God will be there. The pain may never go away, but God will strengthen us to live for Him.

This day is certainly about twinkling lights, delight and hope, but this is also a season of light burning through the darkness.

As we search for meaning on a day that may seem less than perfect, there is hope that suffering will bring us forth into new life.

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