Tuesday, December 31, 2024 – New Years Eve

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.” (1 Corinthians 16: 13, The Message Bible)

                
                After the angels have soared homeward to heaven… what then?
                After the shepherds have returned to their fields… what then?
                After Mary and Joseph have left the stable… what then?
                After the Magi have taken new roads for home… what then?
                After the Star of Bethlehem has dimmed and winked out… what then?

                When we put up our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago, instead of an angel, we set a star on top of the tree. It had lights on its points and we needed to insert batteries into a small battery pack for those lights to work. But this meant that the star would be lit continually, day and night, as long as the batteries lasted as I wasn’t about to climb a step ladder to change the batteries. Ladders and I do not get along. Slowly as Christmas got closer, the lights on the star began gradually to get dimmer and dimmer. Finally, a day or two before Christmas Day, the lights went out, the battery power depleted. But it was nice while it lasted.

                Regrettably, Christmas doesn’t last forever. The beauty of the season fades as we welcome in a New Year. It would be wonderful to enjoy the power of hope, peace, joy and love for as long as possible. But eventually, the real world reasserts itself and Christmas becomes a distant memory all too quickly.

                After the gifts are unwrapped and sorted… what then?
                After the tree is taken down and the ornaments packed away… what then?
                After our families has gone back to their cities and homes… what then?
                After the Christmas music fades and is heard no more… what then?

                We need to remind ourselves that the Christmas Story is but the beginning of the whole story about Jesus Christ. The Nativity of Jesus is a wonderful, sacred, mystical story but it only sets the stage for what is ahead in our encounter with Jesus. We leave the Christmas accounts from the Gospels in order to meet the man of Galilee, the One who has come from God and has left the manger to meet us in our real world.

In a way, our encounter with Jesus is also a type of nativity – ours, a new birth of our redemption, our salvation, our healing, of reconnecting with God in a healthy and transforming way. “Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said, ‘The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers wilt, God’s Word goes on and on forever.’ This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.” (1 Peter 1: 22 -25, The Message Bible)

                 But we will need to recharge the spirit for this New Life to be effective. Left neglected and unattended, we take the risk of allowing God’s Spirit to fade from our lives. We need to seek out meaningful and intentional ways to nurture and nourish the Love of God which sustains us in our daily lives. Prayer, of course, is essential. Worship is important. Reading and meditating on scripture is helpful. Loving others as we are loved is necessary.  Our New Life in Christ can be a fragile and vulnerable state of living unless we feed it, encourage it, sustain it and allow to grow and prosper.

                Christmas isn’t actually over, but it points us in a different direction and leads us on a new venture. Christmas proclaims that there is far more to come, just as amazing, just a miraculous, just as life-changing, just as satisfying, just as amazing.  We are still and always will be  in the Presence of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the one who has come into the world to save us.

                So, as we enter this New Year, let us indeed stand firm in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Give it all you got! Resolve that nothing will distract you or persuade you to give up. Christmas isn’t done with you or me yet.

                Here is the blessing for your 2025: “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, New Living Translation)

Dale