Well, today is the day after the day after Christmas. Most of the wrapping paper has been gathered up, the leftovers wrapped and refrigerated and family and friends have returned home (well, most of them anyway). This is the time when, as after most significant events, the big letdown comes. After weeks and weeks of preparation and intensive celebration on the day in question, the time after all the hoopla is often all too quiet for us, as we realize that all of the celebrating and the trappings brought great joy but for a fleeting moment and that all we are left with are daily challenges from which we sought refuge in the first place.
It’s the moment after a wedding when a new couple realizes that romance isn’t everything and that the intense work of building a home and relationship is only now about to begin. It’s that still quiet moment after the intense grief and sadness a funeral, when all the mourners are gone and all the sympathetic friends seems to have faded away, and we are left with the realization that we will never hear that voice again and that our life has been quieted in some permanent way.
Yes, it is the day after the day after Christmas and the poinsettias are still fresh, the tree still sparkles, and there are still dozens of cookies on the counter but there is a nagging feeling that it’s all over and that soon will be dismantling what we had built for weeks and days.
At first it may seem quite depressing, but for some reason it’s always been an important part of my Christmas celebration: to take some time in the still quiet moments when all the fuss is over, really look at the Christmas tree, survey all the greeting cards, and sit in the quiet splendor of it all to realize that it is all done for love. Perhaps it was the love of parents for their children who want them to have a joyous day when dreams come true and promises are fulfilled. Or, it was the love of a husband and a wife who see in their first Christmas tree still another promise for a long and bright future. In all of it, it is genuinely a sign of God’s love for the world as in the middle of it all we remember that the purpose of our celebrating is the gift that only God could give -- to become one like us to experience our life in every way so that the promise of salvation and the fullness of life can be ours.
It is in moments like this that I realize that God is at the center of it all. It is God “who sends this song upon the air to ease the soul that’s aching, to still the cry of deep despair, and heal the heart that’s breaking.”[i] These are all works of God. They are the works of peace. They are what the angels prayed when they declared “Glory to god on high and peace on all of good will!”
[1] Sally Stevens & Dave Grusin, “Who Comes This Night,” performed by James Taylor, © Emi Gold Horizon Music Corp.
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