“Savor Christmas” by Elizabeth Stone.
January 5, 2020.
Today (January 5th) is the twelfth day of
Christmas; it is the last day of our nativity feast for the coming of King
Jesus, and most of us, myself included, felt rushed through the holidays. Our rhythm of celebration seems to be
dictated by the malls and stores, who even as early as 4 p.m. Christmas day, race
to sell off all the holiday items at increasing discounts, taking down their
decorations and pushing us all into the next season they want to sell us.
My mother was unmoved by the Christmas rush. A good Anglican, Christmas decorations never came
down until January 6th, or Epiphany, the Episcopal celebration of
the arrival of the wise men. Epiphany is
an “ah-ha” moment, a time when divinity is revealed, or when we grasp the reality
of a person or event suddenly and it has life-changing consequences. We have discovered the divine identity of
Jesus the Christ Child; how does that change us? How does our life proceed? Once the Christmas decorations are all put
away, what new directions do we take?
Psalm 6 is one of David’s songs of lament, when his life was
not going well. We seem to forget – in
the mad holiday rush – that lots of people are in sorrow, suffering from
illness, want, or sorrow. Maybe they,
like David, are feeling angry, weak, sick, sinful, and shamed, far from mercy
and far from the glory that God’s children are supposed to enjoy, especially at
Christmas. At the end of his prayer,
David says: “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard
the sound of my weeping. The LORD has
heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.”
What greater gift can there be than to be heard by God? What greater evidence of grace is there than
the coming of Jesus Christ to save us, the ultimate answer to every prayer? If
this has been a tough holiday season for you, let me assure you that you haven’t
missed it. You have been heard.
Savor Christmas. Ebenezer
Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol says: “I will honor Christmas in my
heart, and try to keep it all the year.” Charles Dickens had it right; the gift
of Christmas is not to be pigeon-holed at the end of December and then packed
up for eleven months. The love of God
that came to us at Christmas is an all the time gift.
Tomorrow I will start taking down my decorations, because,
after all, I am a true daughter of my mother.
But I will leave out a candle, something to remind me of Christ, the
light of the world that came and dwelt among us, the guarantee that no matter
what, our prayers are always heard.
