After Christmas

​Christmas is over.  The presents have been opened.  The wrapping paper cleaned up and the gifts put away.  The feast has been consumed and most of the goodies have disappeared.  While Christmas is an amazing, awe-filled celebration and time of memory making and remembering, the post-Christmas season can be a bit of a letdown.  After all the planning, anticipation, and eager expectation, post-Christmas can feel mundane, anti-climactic, and disappointing.  While New Year’s is right around the corner, it does not carry the same joy, celebration, excitement, and magical moments that Christmas does.  

​However, for the Christian, Christmas is not the end of the story.  On the contrary, it is just the beginning!  Therefore, the joy, hope, peace, and celebration that started with Christmas does not need to end as the decorations come down and the Christmas tunes cease.  After Christmas can be a time equally special and full of eager expectation as we not only remember what Christmas celebrates but also what it points to, the second coming of Jesus. 
 
The story that started in Bethlehem and is celebrated through music, decorations, lights, festivities, and gift giving is not over.  Therefore, may we not lose the joy and hope that Christmas gives us; instead, may we carry it with us into the New Year.  May we remember the lessons learned from the manger scene and the message God gave through a baby born in humility. 
 
We have hope that goes beyond the twinkling lights and festive decorations; therefore, let’s live like it!  Let’s move into 2021 with renewed hope and confidence in God’s beautiful plan, fully trusting in His sovereignty.  For just as God orchestrated the myriad of details for that first Christmas and brought all the right people in the right places at the right time, so also He is working and aligning the people, places, events, and timing in your life to accomplish His purposes and bring to fulfillment His divine plans. 
 
Therefore, walk with hope and faith into the future, knowing that the same God who wrote the beautiful Christmas story is penning yours.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  So don’t let the after Christmas blues steal your joy or dampen your hope, but hold onto the spirit of Christmas and celebrate all that it represents each day as you rejoice in the love and hope found in Jesus—Emmanuel, God with us.