Today, January 6th is the traditional feast day commemorating the visit of the Magi to Jesus. This event is usually depicted occurring at Jesus’ birth while Matthew places it realistically at least two years later which precipitates Herod’s murderous slaughter of Jewish baby boys. It is sobering to realize that two years after Jesus was glorified by angels in the heavens and became Israel’s Messiah, Jesus our Prince of Peace, came under a death decree. An innocent child, he was already hated and a threat to rulers and authorities,

In the past, January 6th is the day when Dan and I normally would put away the creche, the outside lights and house decorations. We took down the Christmas tree and put it outside in the snow till spring. The Feast of the Epiphany was a practical but symbolic time indicating the end of the Christmas season. January is under way, New Year’s and its quickly broken resolutions are over and mostly we sigh relief that the holidays are over for another year.

This year I’m in no rush to undecorate and rush into January. Last year was my first Christmas without Dan and I couldn’t bear to celebrate. It was the first time there was no Tannenbaum or carved wooden nativity scene in my living room. This year Christmas came so quickly, seemed short and with God’s grace rekindled my love for our family’s Christmas traditions. Dan is not here with me, but I’m more aware than ever that Jesus whom we celebrated just a few weeks ago has not left . The Christmas lights are back in the box till next year, but Jesus, Light of the world, still lights up my darkness.

The world and the powers that control it have tried to replace Jesus with a generic, tolerant ” holiday spirit,” to take Christ out of Christmas , to continue ensnaring us with January sales and February Valentines and Easter jelly beans even before the calendar pages turn. The devil’s marketing strategy is to get Christ out of Christmas forever, as quickly as possible. Sadly his schemes have worked in believers as well as non believers. We’ve had our celebration of the Lord’s birth- and wasn’t it pretty good this year – but now let’s move on.

If we’re really honest, we were actually far too busy to actually focus on Jesus, it was too materialistic and stressful and now everyone is either exhausted, run down or sick with the sniffles. And the bills are swarming in like flies hatching in the mailbox. Why is Jesus’ birthday party such a let down that half way through we lose the wonder of it?

The answer is simple. The malevolent spirit which brooded in murderous Herod is still alive in 2025,. It is still trying to eradicate Jesus two and a quarter centuries later and denying Jesus his rightful throne.

I think I’ll keep Christmas in my house a while longer.