First lady Jill Biden speaks to Waukesha's resilience after holiday parade tragedy

First lady Jill Biden spoke of a community's resilience and efforts to "hold both our sorrow and joy" in a visit to Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

Her visit came weeks after a man drove an SUV into the city's holiday parade in late November, killing six people and injuring dozens.

"In the Gospel of Luke, the Christmas story begins not with Mary, but with the birth of John the Baptist -- who came, as we're told, to 'testify to the light,'" Biden said in remarks she at Waukesha City Hall.

"Hope had been born, but people needed a prophet to help open their hearts -- just as the Magi needed a star to guide them towards the manger. When we are lost in the dark, we often need someone to turn our eyes to the dawn."

"While there is no logic to this loss, it has left something else in its wake: love. And that defies logic, too. We dance for no reason but a song inside us that won't be silenced. We love with every piece of our hearts, even if they might be broken," Biden said.

"And though we have been changed by this tragedy, we are not diminished. Instead, we grow -- together -- to hold both our sorrow and joy."

Among those injured in the parade were members of the "Dancing Grannies" troupe marching in the parade, as well as members of the Waukesha South High School marching band.

"The grannies keep dancing," she said. "The high school band keeps marching. And Waukesha is lit up in blue. That is the antidote to the darkness. It's how we testify to the light around us and the light within us. We go on together."

The band performed publicly for the first time since the parade on Wednesday, according to ABC News affiliate WISN.

Jill Biden visited Waukesha on the same day that President Joe Biden visited Kentucky, touring towns devastated by a spate of tornadoes over the past weekend; and around two weeks after a school shooting in Oxford, Michigan left four students dead.

"There is sorrow—here in Waukesha and throughout our country…with so many lives lost in the devastating tornados last week—families that the president is visiting today. With the precious children of Oxford, Michigan, who will never have the chance to graduate," Jill Biden said.

"With every family making their way through this season with an empty chair and a broken heart. And yet, today, we are gathered to testify to the light."

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who joined Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on the trip, also spoke to Waukesha's efforts to move forward.

"We are standing with you. We are sending you strength. There's nothing we can say that's going to ease this heartache or erase the pain," Emhoff said. "But in the face of this unthinkable, unimaginable and unexpected tragedy. I've seen it now with my own eyes… how this community has come together with acts of kindness and compassion."

WISN reported that Biden and Emhoff also had a private meeting with some of the families of victims.