Before the New Year: a little more Christmas?

I'm already seeing it. Post-Christmas discounts, Valentine's candy, and superstore racks of "A New Year, A New You!" stocked with vitamins, performance socks, and granola. 

I'm not ready. I don't even want to talk about New Year's yet. I know it's coming, I can't stop time, but Christmas, all that we waited for, shopped for, prepared for--it just happened. Can't we linger here for a moment? 

When our daughter was tiny she used to love this video we would get from the library about Elmo from Sesame Street wanting Christmas to be every day and last forever. The moral was, if that was so then it would be ordinary or even tiresome, and certainly expensive. So no, Elmo, Christmas cannot last more than one day. Like me, he was disappointed but understood. But after the gifts have come, can I not just sit in the wonder of all things Christmas and enjoy it, before I pack it all away and shed the party pounds?

In the practical, there is always something spiritual. In fact the reverse is even more amazing: in the spiritual, there is always something highly practical. Christmas is about hope. The hope fulfilled in the Messiah coming is sung in Christmas carols, celebrated in the creches, and hopefully fills our hearts as we embrace this short season. But as I have shared before, it's also the hope that because Christ came and  completed the work God had for Him in living the life we could not have lived, dying the death we should have died, and rising again to bring us the life we could never obtain apart from Him, we can trust that like He promised He is coming again. And yet Christmas is just one glorious day, then it's over. Our minds turn to other things, life marches on, and Christmas gets boxed up. I believe that's the case, and has to be, because our hope in Christ coming again is not yet fulfilled. We don't get to abide or stay in Christmas or Christmas time. Christmas and all the beauty, wonder, excitement and fellowship is a glimpse of heaven. Everyday magnified, intense joy and ongoing, thrilling celebration--that would be like heaven. But, Christ has not yet come again. So, while we can have a taste of His coming, we can celebrate as a part of an expression of the Good News, we can celebrate as His people because He is in us and with us, we are still waiting, hoping, and journeying with Him towards that place and time where it is all realized. He hasn't come to take us to the place He is preparing. We haven't gone to live with Him there. I believe heaven is in a perpetual state of the feelings of Christmas Eve; last minute preparing, high joy and anticipation of the best celebration yet. When He comes and we go to be with Him, then what we experience together there will make Christmas pale in comparison. It's in that real place that we will get to abide. Until then, He calls us to abide in Him in the day to day living, beyond Christmas and into New Year's.

How do we linger here and then take a bit of the wonder of Christmas with us into the New Year?
Just a few moments to linger with you, Lord. You know I love Christmas. 

This year, as I read the Christmas story in Luke and drank in all the red, green, sparkling white, and twinkling beauty in our home, I was struck by Luke 2:19-20. "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

We can linger here by pausing for a moment. Sit in the few days between Christmas and New Year's and explore the real treasures. "These things"...what grace gifts did God give over the holidays? What did He reveal about Himself, His Son, your heart, His incredible presence and provision? What struck you this season? What experiences were precious, meaningful, and drew you to love and worship? Treasure up those things. Then ponder them in your heart or sit in those thoughts, words, feelings, and memories and give them the value they truly have. Consider them from different angles. Be open to a conversation with God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift, about His wonders and treasures. You get to sit in the wonder. You don't have to tell God about them, define them, or box them up neatly. Ponder them. 

Mary wasn't the only one that experienced the greatness of that first Christmas. The shepherds had a huge Christmas! After hearing and seeing the Truth, they went back to their normal life, like we all do, but they had to live differently. They came to their God, because of this Messiah, with worship that carried over beyond the wonder of the manger. Could it be that beyond Christmas is an opportunity to worship, to glorify and praise God out loud with our lives and mouths, because we hear Him and see Him during the season? All the Christmas music, ornaments, nativity scenes, and on and on that remind us of Christ, that appeal to our ears and eyes, are those the tuning of the orchestra in our souls to bring forth such spiritual music that our mouths and lives can't help but express? More plainly, does Christmas push a reset button for our worship for the rest of the year? I hope, with true expectation, that Christmas causes my life to be different. I hope that I leave this season taking with me eyes and ears so full of Jesus that I have to live differently, interact with my God differently, and share it with whoever is in ear shot. 

Treasures and worship. That's what we get to take into the New Year with us if we will stop long enough to ponder what our ears and eyes have experienced this Christmas. Treasures and worship. That's where we get to abide with Him until Christmas truly is every day with Him in that place He is still preparing. 
Then, gloriously yet not surprisingly, it will be treasures and worship for all eternity.

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny