It’s been a few days now. Have you been hit with the traditional “after-Christmas letdown“? It seems that we save up all of our energy to be used during December. Every workplace, class, club, group, and social set has a party. There are gifts to purchase and food to cook for all of them. Those are in addition to the family get-togethers: more gifts, more food, maybe some added traveling, maybe some additional stress of who is there (that you might prefer was not!) and who is missing (that you really wish was there).
Then, suddenly, it’s over. Maybe the exhaustion is hitting, but the kids are still home from school and you still have to get back to your job. Maybe the days seem too empty: What to do with the time that has been spent running ragged? Clean the house turned upside down from the celebrations? Eat all the remaining treats until you feel bloated and guilty? Hurry to put the decorations away and get back to “normal” 1 ?
And, after all that, is there lasting satisfaction? Were the gifts received, or given, as successful as you hoped? How many toys are already discarded or broken? How many sweaters will be packed away, never to be seen again? Even for the successful gifts, the anticipation, intrigue, and fun are now over…but the bills aren’t.
How can the true joy of celebrating the Messiah’s birth continue without a letdown?
I don’t know that the letdown can be avoided completely. There are ways to help cope: Set boundaries and priorities so we stay within the limits of our time, money, and energy; spread some of the tasks by buying gifts — or baking and freezing the edible goodies — throughout the year; make opportunities to love others during the other eleven months. Those may ease some of the stress. But they can’t really make Christmas last all year at the same level of excitement.
The real problem happens when we let the Messiah become secondary to the celebration. If we do, then the end of the busy-ness is also the end of the joy.
There’s another option. One of the songs our choir sang this year was “I’m Going to Live a Merry Christmas”. Here is a recording (not of us, though!) The lyrics are:
I’m gonna tell it on the mountain:
Joy to the world is in my heart.
Every day I’m gonna shout it:
“Oh, how great You are!”
So like the angels, I’ll keep singing.
And like the shepherds, shout the news.
Lay my treasures down before you,
‘Cause the story isn’t through.I’m gonna live to love,
love to give,
give my life away.
I’m gonna live a Merry Christmas
all year long!
I think the song has the answer: The annual celebration may be over for this year, but the real story isn’t through. The “greatest story ever told” is still in progress. That story has several chapters:
- Chapter 1: God created the world, and gave it to humans as our home.
- Chapter 2: We rebelled against Him, and lost our connection to Him, the Source of our life (a very dark chapter indeed!)
- Chapter 3: He came into our world to rescue us.
- This is the chapter we celebrate at Christmas, and that makes the other chapters possible.
- Chapter 4 (the current chapter): We are living out that rescued life, if we choose to accept it (or living un-rescued, if not).
- Chapter 5: He will return to collect His rescue-ee’s 2 to live with Him forever in a transformed world.
Here are ways the song suggests to keep the celebration going…
Praise God for the entire story.
Behind all the activities and gifts of the holiday is the reminder of Who gave the ultimate Gift that makes the day so holy. Look into that manger, and kneel in awe at the God who loves us that much.
Just think of it: Omnipotent power, crammed into a little human so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:14). That little human grown up into a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3), bearing all the weight of sin on our behalf (all of Isaiah 53). That Man, dying but then rising again so that we, too, could know that death is defeated (1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 21-22).
The scope of that love is beyond comprehension. The only appropriate reaction is praise.
Oh, how great You are!
Share the story with others.
If someone walked up and handed you a million dollars for no reason, would you keep it a secret? Or would you be dancing down the street, excitedly chattering to complete strangers about it?
What if they rescued you from drowning, or pulled you out of a burning house? Wouldn’t you be telling everyone what a hero they were?
If you were dying, but found a hospital whose treatment saved your life — and oh, by the way, it is completely free — what would you say to another patient with the same disease? Would you stay silent, and let them die, or would you tell them about the cure that is available?
The gift of Christmas is more valuable than a million dollars. Jesus is the hero who gave His life to save yours. He provides completely free promise of healing from the disease of death.
Go tell someone!
Give back to God from what He has given us.
This kind of gift can never be repaid. But repayment is not the point; it’s not what God expects, or even wants.
A child can’t repay their parents for everything it costs to be raised in a healthy, loving home. The parent doesn’t expect or want repayment. But they are thrilled with every handprint ashtray and bundle of wildflowers given from their child’s loving heart.
God is just as thrilled with each gift from us, when that gift is from the heart of His child who loves Him.
Bring your treasures, whatever is meaningful to you, to Him!
Live, love, and give — in His name — all year long.
To be loved and rescued by Jesus naturally results in growing to be more like Him, taking on the family resemblance as a child of God. That resemblance includes action.
If God would love that person, then His child will love also. If God would help, the child will. If God would cry, the child will. If God would give, the child will.
Act like your Father!
Doing these things will make the joy of the Child in the manger last all year, all lifetime, and all eternity…with no letdown.
Footnotes and Scripture References
- A naked Christmas tree with all its gifts now missing can be a pitiful sight!
- There is an actual word “rescuee” for “one who is rescued”. But if I used it, you would think it was a typo. 😁
