It's {NOT} Over!

As a psychologist who has worked with many clients and families in therapy, I am all too aware that not everyone experiences joy during the holidays. For many, the holidays are painful and lonely and full of despair. This year, I think of one of our friends who lost his teenage daughter in a tragic July car accident; this is his first Christmas without her. I think of a coworker who is experiencing her first Christmas without her husband, who suddenly divorced her without explanation. I think of children who are sick and in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, just to stay alive for another year. So many are going through real pain, and the holidays can magnify that pain. And for most of us, there is a little bit of a natural let-down after Christmas. All the gifts are opened. The Christmas tree is beginning to droop and drop its needles. The Christmas songs are all but gone from the airways. The snow looks grey where it looked sparkling white in the days leading up the Christmas. It's normal to feel a bit of disappointment after Christmas.

I was talking with some moms at my daughter's Brownie meeting yesterday, and we were discussing the job of taking down all the decorations and passing them away for another year. One of the moms said that her tree and decorations were already packed away. What she said struck me:

"When Christmas is over, it's over."

This was such a sad statement to me.......and one that couldn't be further from the truth. From my perspective, Christmas is only the beginning of the celebration! Hope was born at Christmas time, hope for an escape from eternal death and sin and judgement. So when the day of Christmas comes and goes, that is only one of the first pages of an amazing love story that won't end until we who love Jesus are in heaven for an eternity with Him.

So, although we throw out the tree and pack the decorations away, the hope of Christmas is not over! The celebration and joy and kindness and generosity should continue the entire year through, as we grasp the amazing sacrifice that that little baby born in Bethlehem came to make. Joy to the World.....the story isn't over!