When those difficulties don't disappear, we blame God. Our spouse deserts us - so we blame God. Our child dies - so we blame God. We don't get the job we wanted - so we blame God. But this is a superficial approach to reality, and to God.
God is present to us - God's Life is present to us - in every moment of our lives. In every moment of our own reality, God is offering to be with us, give us the love and strength to walk through life filling and uplifting all those circumstances with God's Love. Even - maybe especially - those moments that weary us, that grieve us, that are complex, dark, dirty, dangerous.
If we look at Jesus' life, we can see that God the Father was NOT a White Knight, riding to His Son's rescue. Jesus endured the taunts of the crowds, the ridicule and hostility of the Pharisees, the long, hard, dirty travels throughout his country, preaching, the exhaustion of being present to the crowds. In the end he endured acute suffering and death.
No, God didn't spare Jesus, didn't shield him from reality. Jesus instead filled every moment of his life here with light, love, goodness, caring, strength. This is the Mystery of Jesus' cross. This is the Mystery of our crosses. God didn't spare His Son and God doesn't spare us.
What God does promise us is protection against the Real Enemy, the Enemy who taunted and tempted Jesus in the desert to take the easy way out and give up on his appointed task, his mission to God's people. We keep thinking that our trials and sufferings are the enemy. The real Enemy is the one who counsels us to give up in despair, to turn away from our responsibilities because of weariness or bitterness, to turn against God when God is our Real Food and Drink and Rest and Light during our long, painful, arduous journey through life.
It is wonderful and deep truth that during the darkest, coldest season of the year that we fill our homes, inside and out, with beautiful, jubilant lights, and lit figures, and decorated trees, in praise of Jesus, the Light of the World. If God took away the darkness, we would not see the light. The reality is that Light and Darkness intertwine together, each necessary in hidden, mysterious ways, in our own lives.
One day, our resurrected and enlightened selves will look back at our earthly lives and understand the reasons for each moment. We will understand the goodness and beauty God has fashioned from the billions of intersecting, warring, yet interconnected lives of His people.
Every moment of your life counts. Every moment - every NOW. God is there, waiting for you to give Him entrance. To acknowledge the NOW has purpose and meaning beyond what you can understand with your limited human mind. To trust Him. To love, with and through and in Him. Right Now, God is asking you to be His own Christmas Light, strong, enduring, bravely shining the Light of Love to help illuminate the world in the midst of its darkness.