Christmased Out

In a world in which we don't have to wait for Christmas (it starts all the way back in August, when the stores start putting up the trees) and where we don't have to live in anticipation (having enough to do to keep us busy throughout the whole season), by the time Christmas morning actually gets here, most of us are already Christmased out. 

We're done. We're tired. We're over it. We're glad that the season has finally ended and we can start packing things away and get a little breather before the new year starts. 

Think about it: how many holiday parties will you have this season? How many times will you watch Elf or National Lampoon's with your family? How many days in a row will you move a supposedly-magical elf from place to place around your house? How many creative backstories and how much full-scale scenery will you create for said elf? How many houses will you visit? How many cookies will you bake? How many will you eat? How many times will you make "one more" trip to the store for "one more" last-minute thing? 

How many Advent calendar boxes will you open, and partake of whatever activities might be inside - jigsaw puzzles, cheeses, coloring pages, candles to light? How many presents will you wrap? Unwrap? How many bags of trash will you take out? How much ham will you pull off the bone, and how many pots of macaroni & cheese will feed your clan? How many Christmas services will you attend, at how many churches? How many candles will you burn...and how many are you burning at both ends?

And...are you exhausted yet?

This is what the Christmas season does to us. It's no wonder we're so happy when it's all just over. 

The thing is, Christmas for us ends on Christmas day. It ends in the hustle and bustle of the inn to the point that most of us don't even remember there's a baby crying in the manger. We are so busy with the noise of our own celebrations that we don't hear Him. We are so blinded by the lights of all of the decorations that we couldn't see the star guiding the way even if we remembered to go outside and look up, even if we had the time. 

There's something about going to the big box store down the road and seeing the garden center filling up with hoses and weedeaters again that makes something inside of us just exhale and say, "Thank God." 

Thank God, indeed, but did you remember to?

For Christians for many years, Christmas Day was not the end; it was the beginning. It was the beginning of a new adventure with God with us - Immanuel. It was the beginning of a new covenant. It was the beginning of a fulfilled hope. It was the beginning of the promise come to life. On Christmas morning, Christians have always exhaled and said, "It's beginning. Thank God."

That is, until culture got hold of it. 

That's why the waiting, the anticipation is so important. That's why setting our eyes on the manger early is so important. That's why it's the key to all of this - learning to wait, learning to anticipate. So that when we get to Christmas morning, we're not already Christmased out. We're not too exhausted and over it and done to hear the baby crying in the manger. To remember what all of this is about. 

The day is coming, friends, not when this will finally be over, but when we will remember it is begun. 

Thank God.