“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem…” (Matthew 2:1 NIV)
In the race to get it all done, we wind up viewing Christmas as a finish line, but for Joseph and Mary and Jesus, their story was just beginning. They woke up on the morning after Christmas – likely a difficult night learning newborn care – and had to figure out a how to exist with an infant in an unfamiliar place.
I remember going home from the hospital with my own newborn. I was twenty-one and reaching from a traumatic labor and emergency c-section. I was too weak to stand though a shower. I had been sliced open from hip to hip a day or two before, and still, sent home with a human to tend to. My mom came to stay for several days. My mother-in-law popped in often. We stayed warm with central heating and clean with modern plumbing and fed with a well-stocked pantry.
Joseph and Mary, on the other hand, managed the care of their babe-Messiah in a cave or stable. They set out as a family as strangers in a community one hundred miles from home. They couldn’t return to Nazareth until Mary was strong enough to make the journey.
Most of us hit December 26 and push off from Christmas and back into regular life. The holy family stayed suspended in their new reality of round-the-clock feeding and diaper changes. There was no easy rout me back to regular life for this couple They were going to live the rest of their natural lives attending to the needs of their child-Savior and that education began the morning after.
What about us? How might we continue to carry the manger in our hearts today? Whether we are returning to work or carrying on in the festivities, we can stay near to the Christ child as we move forward past Christmas. We can keep our ears attuned to His cry. We can remain alert to His requests. We can carry His presence into every hour of this day also.
“But Mary treasured all these thing and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 NIV)
Lord help us not to leave the place where we first discovered Your presence. May we stay near to You, attune to Your agenda and delighting in Your withness. Keep Christmas in our hearts the whole year through. Amen.