Tuesday, December 26, 2017

What to Do with the Day After Christmas




After Christmas: Sales. Travel. Taking down. Putting away.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is an odd jumble of not-holiday, not-quite-regular days. I've never known what to do with them. 

When I grew up, we always took the tree down right after Christmas, so I'm usually ready to move on, to "get Christmas behind me." Today, I passed my tree on the way to the coffee pot with that phrase echoing in my head, as if Christmas was a bad cold from which I need to recover. 

The nativity of Jesus is not something we should "get over." It's the pivotal moment that split history into before and after. Jesus' arrival changed everything. It destroyed the ritual of sacrifice for sin, because Jesus became the permanent sacrifice. The Christ-filled manger brought God to us and provided a way to have God in us. The indwelling of the divine is not a condition from which we convalesce. It's persistent, pervasive, and permanent. 

The birth of the Christ child should have been so real to us yesterday that it changed our today. There's only one way for the reality of Jesus to remain as strong, as pertinent in our lives.

We must choose it.

Yesterday must inform today, and all the days after because Jesus in the manger wasn't passing through. He came to dwell with us.

Today, let's choose to live every day like we did yesterday - full of love, generosity, and service to others. Let's honor Christ with more than words, more than one festive day. Let's live like Christmas all year long. 

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 nasb
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In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: #23:The God Invasion That Changed Everything 

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