I was in the car at night on Christmas Eve going to Mass. I looked out the window and saw a star. Around this star were clouds tinted with red from the lights below. I thought about the Child Jesus as the star and about the lights of the world below trying to outshine this beauty. God is the source of all beauty. But the world tries to outshine Him.
The Child Jesus came to us on Christmas to show us that He is the way, the truth and the life; if we do not give our lives to Jesus, then we are giving it to ourselves. This will only cause despair, hopelessness, pain, and suffering. By trying to outshine Christ horrible things are caused:

Abortion: thinking that we have the power.
War: thinking that we can control others.
The fall of the economy: thinking that we can fix everything without God.
The loss of beauty in the arts: thinking that without truth you can create beauty.

This is all caused by our want to be better than God.
This was the first sin: Pride. Our first Parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, sinned by the want of being better than God. The sins that they caused to come into the world and enter their descendents and nature is called Original sin, and we are all born with it. That does not mean that we actually committed Original sin, but that we are affected by it. For example, in World War II, some Germans did many awful things in the war, and their descendents felt affected by these things. They felt awful for what was done. It is the same with us and Original sin. We are affected by it.
Yet, if we follow the Lord and give our lives to Him, our lives will be full of peace, love, mercy, hope, and joy. By our hope given in Baptism, where we are cleansed from Original sin, we receive the grace of God within us. It is through this grace that we will be able to see the evil and resist it with more strength. This does not mean, however, that we will still not try to outshine God, for into the world sin was introduced. Yet, through His grace, we will stand firm and have the peace and knowledge that God loves us. We must open our hearts to the Child Jesus, and there beauty will spring.
The star I saw on Christmas Eve night reminds us of the hope given by the Redeemer and His love. He is here with us through all trouble and will help us to become children of God. He is our light in darkness.