Cresent Hotel, Eureka Springs
For a few weeks every year the world seems to transform itself into a different place. Its a little kinder, a little more giving and a little more loving.
The focus makes a slight shift from our often self-centered lives, to that of others around us. We select gifts, some easily, some glibly, some with agonizing uncertainty.
Extra checks are written to food pantries and noble causes.
Goodies baked for the enjoyment of others,
Houses sparkle,
Trees glitter.
Every store you enter is filled with the music of Christmas. Strains echo over and over and over again, of hope, happiness, and good cheer.
And Jesus was actually at the front and center of the season for many, dusted off and set in a place of honor and respect. And he was just plain remembered for a change.
If there was a little artificiality in the air, at least it was accepted as the truth of the moment.
Christmas, wound up like a top, whirled and swirled in perpetual motion until it finally ran out of steam, slowing, wobbling and finally falling over quiet.
The loving and giving spirit, all too soon forgotten as January crept in.
Now it’s done and life resumes. The troubles that were packed away for a few days, never really went away. They were just suspended for a time.
We created a false reality, beautiful, harmonious, fragile, unable to withstand the blows of life.
So I’m feeling a little blue. I always do. The kids are gone, the house quiet. Decorations to store, a dried-up tree to haul out.
And baby it’s cold outside.
All I want to do is put off working and sit by the fire, doing what I love, reading, studying and writing.
Now I have to share those loves with the reality of making a living. I do enjoy decorating and designing, don’t get me wrong. But it pales in comparison to the joy I feel when I can put down a few well placed phrases, or when I can learn a new biblical truth.
As the vision of Christ fades and the world quickly forgets, we need to shake off our blues and let our light shine even more brightly. It seems easier to talk about him in December. But if we are not going to be a reminder of him to the world around us, who is?
We have had the mantle passed on to us. The mantle that Jesus shared with his disciples two-thousand years ago.
Go,
Share,
Live for him each day as if your life depended on it.
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Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they many see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.
-Do you have the after Christmas blues?
-Focus on others to get rid of them. Write your plan of action.