It doesn’t matter that it’s not yet December, and you and I have already heard Johnny Mathis singing “We Need a Little Christmas” at least once. “Haul out the holly / Put up the tree before my spirit falls again. / Fill up the stocking. / I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now. For we need a little Christmas / right this very minute.”

And we do.

It seems to me that what Cleveland Amory in The Christmas Story called the “yearly bacchanalia of peace on earth and good will to men” does, if only for a month or so, make the world a little bit kinder and more pleasant. And we should thank God for small mercies.

Nonetheless, while most people assume that Black Friday to New Years Day is the Christmas Season, it’s not. The Christmas Season begins on December 25 and lasts twelve days. Advent, the weeks prior to Christmas began Sunday. And let me suggest that perhaps more than needing a little Christmas, we need a little Advent.

The seemingly interminable presidential race that we thought was over appears to be anything but. The Clinton campaign is joining in calls for recounts, something they’ve been working on since Mrs. Clinton’s “concession” speech on November 9. In addition, electors who will cast their states’ electoral votes for Donald Trump are receiving harassment and death threats to force them into voting for Clinton instead. Can electors contravene the voters and give electoral votes to Mrs. Clinton? Apparently so and the election could flip. What’s the chance of that happening? Not very good, but good grief must we continue to deal with this? Will it never end?

No, it will never end. That’s the nature of our highly polarized politics. Compromise, graciousness and a level playing field under the rule of law have fallen out of fashion in a political culture that only values power at any price.

Beyond our boarders, Syrian government forces advance on Aleppo and fleeing civilians pay the price. Christianity in the region is being crushed into oblivion and the threat of terror in Europe and in the United States remains with us. The suspect in Monday’s auto and butcher knife attack at Ohio State University is Abdul Artan, a Somali who spent seven years in Pakistan before coming to the United States in 2014.

I could go on, but you get the idea and can fill in your own news nightmares. You and I need a little Advent.

Advent destroys worry as we remember that temporal power, prestige and pride loosed from any morality beyond the desires of the strong are just that: temporary.

Advent celebrates more than just the prophetic lead-up to Bethlehem, the manger, the shepherds, the angels and “the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.” The first two weeks are more “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King.” That’s not a Christmas hymn, you know. It’s a Second Coming hymn. The advent of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Righteous Judge before whom every knee shall bow and to whom everyone will answer approaches.

“We do not preach only one coming of Christ,” wrote the fourth century Church Father, Cyril of Jerusalem, “but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom. … At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.”

About that coming, Isaiah prophesied, “And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

Living a few blocks from my three grandchildren, I can’t help but wonder daily what kind of nation — let along what kind of world — they will be living in as adults. The trend lines do not appear encouraging and, to be honest, I worry.

Advent destroys worry as we remember that temporal power, prestige and pride loosed from any morality beyond the desires of the strong are just that: temporal and therefore temporary. The eternal is of a completely different order.

So by all means, haul out the holly and put up the tree, but as you do, keep in mind that it’s Advent: four weeks during which we can adjust our expectations, grow in hope, remember what counts for eternity, and amend our lives accordingly.

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Have a blessed Advent.