Wanda Bencke wrote the poem, “My First Christmas in Heaven,” after her child died on Christmas Day, 1997.  It has helped millions of people who have lost loved ones during the holiday season to deal with sadness and emptiness that overtakes them while the world celebrates.  Here are her words:

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below
With tiny lights, like Heaven’s stars, reflecting on the snow.
The sight is so spectacular! Please wipe away that tear,
For I’ll be spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.
Oh, I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,
But the sounds of music can’t compare with the Christmas choir here.
I have no words to tell you the joy their voices bring,
For it truly is beyond description to hear the angels sing.
I know how much you miss me. I see the pain inside your heart,
Even though I’m a world away, we really aren’t apart.
So be happy for me, loved ones. You know I hold you dear.
Be glad I’m spending my Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.
I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above.
I send you each a memory of my undying love.
After all, “Love” is the gift more precious even than gold.
It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.
So, please love and keep each other, as our father said to do,
For I can’t count the blessings or the love He has for you.
And have a Merry Christmas as you wipe away that tear!
Remember that I’m spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

It is not easy to find happiness after such profound sorrow; it is not joyous to participate in others’ jubilation when your heart is broken.  The week of Christmas, in our northern hemisphere, marks the days of least natural light and many people are emotionally enveloped by that darkness.  Different from Seasonal Affection Disorders, the Christmas blues are a holiday curse for them.  Some seek to remedy it by keeping busy or attending “Blue Christmas” gatherings but, in the end, those who suffer must find their own ways to cope.

Yet if we believe in the prophecies of the season and hold true to what we profess in faith, we might find not only solace but grace.  Advent and Christmas point us to a world of no more sorrow, no more suffering, pain or tears, to a place where the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame dance for joy, a land where the lion and the lamb lie down together, where the vulnerable are not gripped by fear.  It is a kingdom of peace where children experience happiness beyond imagination and where all of us are children of God.  Pope Leo echoes for us today the message of Jesus long ago: that we are connected to God’s glory that is far greater than our sadness.  This is temporary; that is permanent.  Or, as Saint Paul wrote to the Romans, “The suffering of the present is nothing compared to the glory that will one day be revealed to us.”  Let us surrender to the mystery of the Incarnation, let us pray for those who are sad at Christmastime, and let us hold on to the great hope of heaven that awaits us.