By Emily Cook The glitter of Christmas has a way of highlighting the brokenness of the world for me. When Christmas is about the merely material side of things, it is as if the world gathers to string lights on platitudes and empty hopes, or to put frosting on a rotting cookie. I see the emptiness of the platitudes, the rottenness of the gifts the world offers. Mere Christmas lights are not bright enough to truly pierce the darkness of this broken place, of our aching hearts. And yet, we gather with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we sing: The night will soon be ending; the dawn cannot…