Christmas is past, and the New Year has already lost a bit of its bling. All the members of our tribe have returned to their routines of keeping children clothed, fed, educated and encouraged. Last year’s burdens are freshly taken up with a renewed hope they might begin to evaporate in the days ahead.
The symbols of the joy of Christmas that currently adorn our home are calling for my attention. The anticipation of the celebration fueled the precise placement of decorations in our home. Each pre-Christmas morning was prioritized by flicking the switches, which lit up the season. Each night ended with the pre-bed ritual of flipping those switches in the off position.
Now, there is the anticipation of putting each artifact back in their respective box and tightly packing them back behind a closed door. On this morning, the joyous Christmas tree sits dark, almost looming, calling my name. Now we do not talk of merry Christmas; we just say Christmas. Is our merry put out of sight along with ?
Do you think I sound gloomy or humbug? I’m really not. At least not wholly, for I have already begun to sense, in the core of my human identity, the next annual celebration of the birth of Jesus.
As far as the New Year is concerned, well, it’s just humans counting their possessions. These may be the first days of our new calendar year, but they are really only the planetary movements of the cosmos. We humans like to have beginnings and endings. We want to call them “fresh starts.” But that is really only a sales gimmick we use to convince ourselves there is hope for a better tomorrow, a better me. The truth is that a New Year, a new number, is not going to change anything. What we need is a new life, the Life intended by the creator of time. If you do not see or have confidence that God is in this moment, likely, you will not sense Him in the next. You cannot possibly create, or recreate, a better version of yourself.
It is the new day that matters, not the new year. A year is just a trip around our sun, an accounting of our planet’s rotations. A day, however, is a gift to celebrate. There is no happiness in a new year; there is only happiness today, right now, this moment. Happiness does not “come” and “go.” It’s not a feeling; it’s a state of being. Wherever God is, there is happiness to be had, free and abundant. This is how Psalm 118:24 put it:
This day belongs to the Lord!
Let’s celebrate
and be glad today. (CSV)
I tried to stop right there, but alas, I cannot. If our Jesus is not “the Lord” of your day, there won’t be much celebration in it or any reason for gladness. Today will merely be a repeat of yesterday with just newer memories created and fewer old ones to recall. Like manna in the Hebrew’s wilderness journey, happiness is outside your tent; you just have to gather it. Don’t worry, it will also be outside your tent tomorrow morning.
photo – Our Christmas tree topper.
Baldwin Heirlooms 