Holidays

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Every Christmas I, like you, embrace the traditions that make this season special: the display of lights, the decorations, the carols, the special movies and the presents. But when the lights are turned off and the tree lies desolate by the curb…what then? When Christmas activities fade to fond memory…what should we do next?

Often at Christmas we Christians lament how the true meaning of the season is lost on so many. But after the season passes do not many of us become wanderers again ourselves? We return to our duties and our lives with little or no change. Christmas was just a warm and delightful interruption.

As I pack my traditions away in boxes for another year…I wonder, will I be any different? Every year when I store away the ornaments, the manger and all our family’s other Christmas memories, I feel as if it is the end of something wonderful. But what if this year I look at it as if it is the beginning of something wonderful? What if this year as I pack away my own traditions, I take up the traditions of my spiritual fathers? I wonder would anyone join me?

This year when we say good-bye to the Babe in the manger…let us say “Welcome” to the Lord of our lives. As our embrace of our family traditions loosen…let us tightly embrace the traditions of our Bible elders:

To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength
To love man enough to share the love of God with them
To love the church enough to make it a welcome place for them to come
And to love ourselves enough to make but one resolution:
To be like Christ!

If we could determine in our hearts to make this change…to commit to this new beginning…to remember that the church year begins with Christmas not ends there. If we could purpose in our spirits to really embrace our heritage as followers of the Living God …perhaps next year when the Babe comes again, He will find a few more “shepherds” knelt down before Him, a few more “wise men” who were willing to make the journey and perhaps He will even find a few human hearts that had been closed to Him…have room enough after all…and to spare!

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