The Day After

Today we went to visit some family who live close by. It’s always nice to see those people you don’t often get the chance to see because, for some reason, busy schedules and the demands of life always seem to get in the way. Sometimes you get to be with people you haven’t seen since the last Christmas. So, after a few necessary pleasantries, you get to talking with folks and you realize how much you’ve missed them during the year. Before long, you’re chatting as if you’ve never been hanging out together all year. That’s the beautiful thing about love. It seems to know no time.

Maybe that’s one of the wonderful things about the holiday season. Christmas itself is sort of timeless. Times may change, but the holiday traditions just seem to keep on going. In the course of just a few minutes, no matter how old you are, you may find yourself feeling like a child again. And what is more, although we all go through a lot of changes over time, everyone is really the same year after year. You can depend on some things. It something, perhaps the one thing, that remains consistent. There are the stories shared, sometimes for the umpteenth time, and the laughter. And somewhere between the salad and the coffee, you feel that sense of connection that makes you feel whole again.

But that’s the thing about Christmas, and all the Winter Solstice holidays, really. It’s all about rebirth and renewal. Every year we look back on the year behind us and look forward to the year ahead with the kind of hope that tells us that maybe this year will be better for us all. That is, really, the message of Christmas. It is a message of hope, love and renewal. After the wrapping paper is cleared away and all the dishes washed and the photographs all taken, we feel a little recharged, a little more able to face the challenges we face everyday, having renewed ourselves with the love our friends and families have shared. We see the joy and wonder in the faces of those children who have only recently become a part of this whole madness, and we think wistfully about those faces we miss, the ones we will always miss, who, even though they are gone, will always be a part of this celebration for as long as anyone who remembers them still sits around the tree on Christmas Day. People can change, or come and go, but the traditions last as long as there is family, long after the people who began the tradition are long gone.

And in the eyes of every child that’s born, we see the hope for a better world. Maybe these kids will get it right. Maybe they can make a world that is more loving and giving, a world at peace. That was the message, wasn’t it, peace on earth, good will towards everybody? Maybe this generation will get it right. In some ways, every child is that Christ child. Every child is the hope of a sad and weary generation that has screwed things up as much as every generation before. That hope connects us all. The holidays, really, connect us all. Whether you’re talking about cleaning and restoring the temple in Jerusalem, or celebrating the coming of the Messiah, it’s all about hope for a better future. The nights have stopped getting longer; the sun is returning. It’s not here yet, but it’s coming. That we know as sure as anything.

And that hope resides in each one of us. We make the world better. Those people who think that Christmas is about the coming of a king are missing the whole point. It wasn’t a king that shepherds came to see, it was a child, the smallest of us. The star didn’t shine over some majestic palace or temple, it shined over a lowly stable. The least of us holds that hope. We make the world better. We have to power to bring love and peace, or anger, or division. We are that hope for tomorrow. It isn’t some world leader who will bring peace and prosperity to us. It isn’t even some supernatural being coming down from heaven who will make everything right. Jesus didn’t do that. He came and told us that we have the power to make our world a paradise, we just have to have faith. And again, the stories are just there. Maybe they happened and maybe they didn’t. So what. It has nothing to do with the truth behind the story. Even if the events in the Christmas story didn’t happen, the story is still true. The world is funny that way.

So tomorrow is the day after Christmas. The stores will be full of people returning the gifts they didn’t want. There will be long lines and short tempers. It will be easy to forget all the love we felt today. And as corny and maudlin as it sounds, I will hold that hope that as many of us as can will hold Christmas in our hearts all year long. And if we pass that feeling along, especially to those who may not be so easy to love, perhaps we will start to make this long winter pass and we will find ourselves renewed and reborn. The Christmas star is shining this year, just as it has for the last two thousand years, right over your house.