Christmas has come and gone. All that is left is the tune in my head perpetually asking, “what are you doing for New Year’s Eve” and a dried out Christmas tree. Oh, and a huge mess of dishes and wrapping paper and no room to store the new toys. But this isn’t what strikes me the most.
Satisfaction. That is what is striking me. Never before has this been the post Christmas feeling. As a kid I threw all my weight into Christmas Eve, Santa bringing me what I wanted, and the chaos of Christmas Day. I’m not sure if it’s having two daughters or the mental preparations, specifically designing everything from Black Friday with everything Christmas, but in the end here I am, content.
Having kids at Christmas is awesome. The lights, the chocolate & candy, the presents, the family, the concerts and more are all new for a 2 year old and so I too get to see it al anew. And over that she’s already getting the basics of baby Jesus. It’s triggered more bible times for her and I. Just last night, getting home late from the city, she asked for bible with her snack.
But in this Christmas season I’ve embraced the word “season.” No more hyped anticipation of Christmas Eve. Christmas is a month long and needs to be taken as such. Cookie baking, decorating, signing, it’s all Christmas. Christmas isn’t a day, it’s a season. Advent has helped me with this. It truly is a season of preparation. But the key is the preparation is the event.
Preparation is not simply necessary in order to get to the destination. Like Christ preparing us for himself and eternity, today is no less salvation then when we enter that glorious kingdom in its fullness. So I embrace the season and find myself content. And tired. And ready for New Years.
Content with Christmas and what it has brought, content with my souls and it’s preparation, I now go back to asking my beautiful wife in lustrous notes, “what are you doing New Years, New Year’s Eve?”
For His Kingdom 