and so this is christmas?

I saw the message below posted by an acquaintance on facebook.

While driving around doing last-minute Christmas errands this morning - carols blasting in my car and Littles laughing in the back seat - I drove by a woman, who was alone in her car, sobbing. My heart stopped. My perspective changed in an instant. I felt desperately for that woman. Obviously, I don't know her, or her circumstances, but I know what it feels like to be heart-broken; especially in the midst of what is supposed to be a blissfully happy holiday season. And then I remembered. That woman IS the very reason we have a holiday season. Christmas, Jesus' Birthday, is the REASON for the season. God saw how hard this life was for us, that no matter how much we tried to make everything "merry and bright," we still experience pain and suffering. He knew how desperately we needed a Savior - someone who could offer us a gift unlike anything this World could ever provide - a home with no more tears, no more suffering or pain. He offered us Heaven through the hope of His son, Jesus Christ. I'm SO thankful that I have the hope of Heaven to look forward to. I pray this woman would understand the hope that Christ offers her this Christmas. And I pray for every other individual who is suffering this Christmas season - the families in CT, those who have lost, separated/divorced families, the unemployed, the sick, the lonely, the list goes on - that the hope of Christ would shine bright and bring true peace this season. Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a GOOD night!

This has the start of a very nice story:  upon encountering a down-on-her-luck stranger, a privileged protagonist feels compassion and rethinks her worldview. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the story is a disaster. The weeping woman seemed like she'd be a character in the story, and I expected that by the end she'd have received some useful assistance.  Instead, weeping woman isn't really a character and her eventual plight is completely ignored.  Rather than help weeping woman, the protagonist continues on her way like a bizarro Good Samaritan, more convinced than ever that there's some magical force that will make everything better.  Well aware of 2,000 years of human suffering since the arrival of the magic "savior," the protagonist is still somehow expecting results.  Contrary to her claim, there's no change of perspective here; the protagonist's preexisting perspective illogically becomes more entrenched. 

I don't think it would do much good to say any of that in her facebook comments, so I've buried it here instead.  I should also say that despite her superstition, dogma, and clumsy trivialization of human suffering, I think there's a basically decent message underneath, and hopefully that is what large numbers of her facebook friends are "liking" about it.  Sometimes I forget how much pain is in the world and how little I can do about it.  Luckily, I have a community of helpful people I can turn to when times are tough, and I hope that everyone else who is suffering can find help too.