When Christmas is Over… 1/9/2020
It came as kind of a shock. It was December 26th, and when I turned on my car radio, the Christmas music was suddenly done. The festive tunes that had decked my halls with boughs of holly for the past months had now returned to regularly scheduled broadcasts. My Holy Nights dreaming of a White Christmas were now a thing of the past. Christmas 2019 now only existed in my memory.
For many of us, by mid January with our Christmas decorations all put away, our Christmas memories have already lost their sparkle and are starting to be forgotten. Some of our new toys are perhaps are even broken already. Our favorite Christmas cookies are now long gone and the leftover ones are perhaps broken or starting to get stale. And while we may still enjoy the taste of a peppermint latte, the novelty of that Christmas time beverage has worn off. We sadly remember that Christmastime, like many things in life, is something that is temporary and transient.
But our relationship with God is not one of those things! Our relationship with God is eternal! When we in prayer connect with God, when we are comforted by the Holy Spirit in times of trouble, when we in love reach out and help and care for our neighbors and feel that unfathomable and deep sense of joy in our fulfillment of our purpose –it is then that we know that we are connected to the stuff that really matters. That connection to God is like an eternal shape that snaps into our soul with a satisfying click that no plastic human made gadget can even come close to replicating.
So as this Christmas season 2019 comes to a close, I would encourage each of us to follow the light of Christ in a life of more deep and meaningful relationship with God in 2020. With clear vision may we all focus more completely on the eternal things that really matter. Amen.
