Too often, we reduce the four themes of Advent— hope, peace, joy, and love— to sentimental clichés tied more to the holidays than to the reality of life. But Advent isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about Light showing up in the midst of darkness. Advent invites us to wrestle honestly with what hope, peace, joy, and love mean during real life— to look beyond surface-level comforts and encounter something deeper and truer in the person of Jesus. Advent reminds us that the Light has come—and that it’s for those who know how deeply they need it.