The Day After Christmas

So many sweet friends have assumed that the holidays would be hard for us.  While I am thankful for their thoughtfulness, I have found it to be quite the opposite.  While the tears still fall daily, my heart has been filled at the same time with the incomparable hope of Jesus, the beauty of the season, and the joy of being together again with people we love very much.

Reading Come Thou Long Expected Jesus has been really good for me this year.  In it, Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that "the incarnation is the supreme example of fulfilled prophecy, the supreme example of God's faithfulness to His promises."  Mary recognized this when she said, "He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors (Luke 1:54-55)."  God promised Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed (Gen 12:3).  He fulfilled that promise through the birth of a baby...a baby who would change everything.

Because God became a baby, I have the true hope of eternal life.
Because God became a baby, I am separated from mine only temporarily.
Because God became a baby, I know that other promises He made are true:

And we know that in all things

God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.

Hebrews 13:5

I am making everything new.

Revelation 21:5

Therefore we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away,

yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,

but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So, instead of pain, Christmas has brought much hope.  It has been the day after Christmas, however, that I have been dreading.  I began thinking in early December of the day when I would have to take down the tree and put away the beautiful lights...and the thought made me a little sick to my stomach.

But, the truth is, Christmas may be over but the One we celebrate still lives.

Check out this song by Matthew West and this post by my friend, Holly.

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