Can We Talk 2

After Christmas Holidays, Back to Normal

         This week, we go back to normal, if not already. The decorations will come down. Ordinary music and chores. Back to work or housework, back to laundry, cleaning floors, cleaning toilets, maintaining the car. The parties, the concerts, the special events are pretty much over. Life goes on as before.

         The shepherds had that experience the first Christmas. They were startled out of the ordinary by scary magnificence of heavenly beings. They didn't understand what they heard, but decided to check it out. When they found the baby as told, they marveled and felt joy, but they still didn't know the whole story. They didn't know how it fit in with the prophecies, or how it would turn out. They were excited and didn't keep it a secret, but they did go back to work. Maybe they were changed forever, maybe it wore off.

         We have the advantage of knowing the significance of the details. But are we changed by it? Are we more giving all year or only in season? How does having Christmas every year really affect us, other than give us an excuse to party, to have a big meal, and lavish gifts on our friends and loved ones?

         I heard someone today talk about everyone being in a bathroom every day. Most bathrooms, even in stores and work places, have mirrors. If every time we looked in the mirror, we told ourselves "I am wonderfully made" like the psalmist said, would we be nicer people to be around. Would we be more positive and encouraging to others if we tell ourselves, "God loves me and cares for me" every time we look in a mirror?

         Celebrating Christmas is a reminder that the God of all creation became one of us to communicate his love to us. Maybe that conversation with the mirror would remind us of that all year long. Christmas would be a quiet part of the ordinary on a daily basis.