I need more darkness before Christmas. There should be fewer lights, less happiness, and more sorrow. It should be okay to not be okay before Christmas.

It is not the most wonderful season of all, all the time. It is not the hap-happiest season of all. It is not the most wonderful time of the year (my apologies to Andy Williams).

There is Christmas music for a month before Christmas, even two months where I live. Christmas music is everywhere, always happy, always cheerful, always.

Sorrow will overshadow whatever merriment there is to have. For many, there will be a conspicuous absence from the Holiday celebrations. For others, this will be the last Holiday they will enjoy.

In those times, the laughter, the lights, the music, the “Merry Christmas!” can overwhelm.

I think the whole Christmas thing is reversed.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and songs like it should rule the airwaves. There should be room for any and all of us to acknowledge our sorrows and loss. Yes, there is something good coming. Yes, there is hope. But let me be sad and let my sadness be okay in the process.

Then, when Christmas day comes, the lights go on and stay on. We celebrate the light shattering the darkness. We celebrate hope and joy overcoming despair and sorrow. The music is played and remind us of our dear Saviors birth.

It would be a more accurate reminder of the original Advent and probably an accurate portrayal of our current waiting for God’s Second Advent.

That would, somehow, let me grieve all I experience in the lives of the families I serve and in the world around me. It would be an annual time of healing and restoration of hope. Until it was no longer needed.

O Come! O Come, Emmanuel!