…the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. “1.John 2:8

January has never been my favorite month. The cold, snowy weather is  delightful for  those who  come to the mountains to recreate. Our family  often came  from Boise  to spend  weekends  in our little cabin on Warren Wagon Road and  ski at Brundage.  But those years are  in the past as Dan and I no longer ski and don’t tolerate the  cold as well.  Now January is here again,   the snowslide from the roof has buried access to the front door, we have to wait for the driveway to be plowed, the fireplace eats wood like Christmas cookies and the “ice trax”  for my boots are close at hand so that I can walk the dog without falling on the ice. It is breathtakingly beautiful here in the winter, but January reminds me how interminably  long winter  will last.

January also brings the “post holidays” blahs. Christmas  festivities are over,   our children and grandchildren have  come and gone,  leaving their  bittersweet touch because we just don’t know when we’ll see them again. I am restless in January because now there’s the tedium of undecorating the house, taking down the tree, packing away the Christmas treasures until next year, locating where all my dishes and utensils are and cleaning house after two teenagers,  six adults and four dogs have been with us. I just don’t feel like tackling any of it.  Besides in my German tradition, the holidays lasted till the Epiphany  two days away.   Besides, what’s the rush? January is also one of the longest months. I can stay snowed in and scoop dead pine needles  back under the tree for  several weeks!

In three January days the controversial fight for the presidency will  finally be decided,  but  few of us find solace in what looks like  the decided outcome. Many believing  Christians  are understandably nervous.  January’s confirmation will usher in the most peculiar presidency I’ve ever seen. It will surely heighten the cultural, political and ideological transformations of  2020 which threaten  faith and values we hold dear.

My malaise and trepidations  (and that of others) is very real, but I think it’s because we forgot far too quickly the miracle of Christmas. Just ten days ago we celebrated Jesus’ Incarnation into a world every bit as dark, dangerous and fallen as the present one.  He was the Light that came into the world and His light is the life of men. Is He not still, always and forever the Light and the Life, the one who is our peace, joy, hope and  love  this January?  How can one celebrate God’s greatest gift to mankind  on December 25 and then forget to dwell with Him  in the same peace , hope, joy and love as soon as the calendar pages turn?

January is named for the Roman god Janus, whose  image looks both backwards and forwards in time and was tacked to the doors of Roman homes.  Perhaps we’ve unwittingly  invited that  same pagan idol into the doorways of life,   “ringing out the old and ringing in the new year”, as if  double faced perception  is anything but  severely blinded and useless to protect us.  

 We move  far too quickly from the divine mystery  of the Incarnation  into the darkness of time, back to just another new year, another calendar to mark, to January resolutions we can’t possibly keep  and heart sick  worries about a  future which only God controls. The glory  of Bethlehem dissolves in our fickle hearts faster than snow in rain, its  majesty more  like sputtering  candles than hearts afire with  the Holy Spirit as were the heavens at Jesus’ birth.  Why then be surprised at January’s doldrums! The only hope for 2021 is our singular  Gospel witness which comes solely from Christ our Emmanuel, God with us ,  He Who is indescribable peace, joy unspeakable , hope eternal, and love incomprehensible.

This January I stand convicted.