Christmas Let Down
“ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
In the quiet of the morning, I sit. Eyes closed, breathing steady, holding onto the hallowed and the holy before the rush.
It’s Christmas Eve! We’ve been waiting and waiting for today… and now it’s… it’s here! Finally! I should be so excited. I am excited, mostly.
Yet there’s a letdown, too, isn’t there? So much of the excitement in Christmas is the buildup, the preparations. Decorating just so. Baking the cookies. Dreaming up the right gifts for those we love. Spiritual preparations, too, like Advent Bible studies and the centering of the heart and soul.
Today and tomorrow, Christmas Eve and Christmas, are the “big” days…the happiest of happies, with the tree and the presents and the family and the songs and the rush and….
And then what?
Back to the regular routine. Back to plain-old, regular, non-festive life. Back to work rhythms and school rhythms and exercise regimens and all the day-in, day-out stuff.
Except that’s all wrong… because I’ve just remembered. The best part about Christmas is that IT’S NOT OVER. It’s never over.
Every day is a new miracle, a baby “wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12 NKJV) there for us to rejoice over. The miracle of Christ’s birth is not a one-and-done thing. Christ is the Word of God that “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) forevermore.
The best news about Christmas is the salvation we receive in Jesus is a gift we have every day, not only on earth but for all eternity.
We might put the tree away and take down the lights outside our house, but there’s nothing “plain-old” about the rest of our life with Jesus. Every day is an opportunity to walk with Him as we spread God’s Good News near and far.
Merry Christmas, friends, and may the joy of Christ’s birth surround you every minute, every hour, all year long.
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministry team. She’s also an author who currently serves as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction, represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.
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Originally published Tuesday, 24 December 2019.
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