The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark 1:1

It’s the post holiday time. Many people take down the tree and all their decorations even before the Christmas trash bags are out the door. I can’t quite let go. In my family the Christmas tree stayed up until January 6th, the traditional Feast of the Epiphany and I must confess that I have gone even later. I love having the house decorated with my Christmas baubles. I love flickering colorful lights at night, a wide-winged poinsettia filling up the bay window corner and huge red bows hanging from the deck. It is winter eye candy set against the backdrop of the white snow outside. January is long, cold and often grey, so it’s ok, I tell myself, to leave the evergreen wreath on the door, the tree lights still lit and a few fanciful snowmen tucked here and there on book shelves. Nevertheless, very soon I’ll put my house back into good Teutonic order, albeit reluctantly. I am sure that my neighbor below will appreciate not seeing the blue BSU star lighting up our front porch at night any more. Might he be a Vandal? Go Broncos!

For the world, the so-called holiday spirit disappeared overnight as quickly as Santa and his sleigh zooming back to the North Pole at dawn. For those who do not understand or reject that Christmas is about Christ’s Incarnation, it is simply back to business as usual with a ho hum or a sigh of relief. January rolls around as if nothing miraculous or even noteworthy has happened. In the world view, squares on the December calendar mark a holiday which is more hectic, expensive and sentimental than say, Ground Hog Day. The secular Christmas celebrated by secular people has no lasting impact because Jesus is no longer the center of the story. I fear that the day when Jesus is completely excluded from His own Nativity draws chillingly closer.

Surely, Christians realize that the Nativity does not end at midnight on December 25 for we believe in an Incarnation, the enfleshing of God in man, His divine visitation and physical participation in the human race. What began in the Bethlehem stable does not end when the angelic host vanished or when the shepherds found the Babe prophesied to them. The story in Luke quickly moves forward.
Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Luke 2:1,18

The wonderful story of the Nativity is not meant to be over when the date is crossed off the calendar. Like Galilean shepherds who immediately made known all that they had seen, heard and witnessed, shall our fire be any less? Is not this dark, broken, hell bent world needing to hear the marvelous things we have been told and believe? We have been told in John’s words that
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 and again a few verses later…
…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Jesus’ nativity story is unlike that of any other person who has ever been born – or who will ever be born. It is not over. It’s up to us to shout that to the world. If we don’t proclaim “ the Light has come,” then who will? Or has Christmas, the way we unfortunately celebrate it become one iota less holy, and not “the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God?”

Read the rest of Luke’s second chapter. There are hidden scriptural treasures. (Hint: Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day which happens to coincide with … ?) Surprised me, too.