After Christmas

When I think of our Christmas celebration I cannot help but be filled with joy! Our young folk did a great job with their Advent skits! Our “Christmas Dinner Theatre” was great as we all became a part of the story. Our deacons lovingly distributed fruit baskets to our shut-ins. One of our long time members told me that he thought our Christmas Eve service was the best church service he had ever attended! I have to agree that it was something special. The music provided by Beverly, and Dan and Sharon, and the choir was spectacular. It also was great to see our sanctuary packed!

Christmas was wonderful, but then there is always what comes after. The lights and decorations come down. Many of the toys and presents the children had so enthusiastically anticipated have been laid aside. Regular Sunday morning worship attendance is not so good.

That’s how it is after Christmas. The angels stop singing. The Star in the sky disappears. The Wise Men go home. There is a seeming return to normalcy. But not really. Normal has changed. Mary and Joseph couldn’t go back to Nazareth. They had to hightail it to Egypt. Then there are the normal changes brought about by any new baby. After the greatly anticipated arrival comes the diapers, the crying, the demands, and the disrupted sleep. Babies always bring dramatic change. Indeed, they bring about a complete reorganization of life for those in close orbit around them.

That is certainly true of the Baby Jesus. When Jesus enters the world or a life, normal is no longer normal. Normal for a Christian is something different than normal for anyone else. It has to be.

Luke tells us that after Christmas, “Mary pondered all these things in her heart.” I invite you to do the same. In this time after Christmas, ponder how your life is different because of the coming of this Little One.

2007 C. David Hess