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What Comes After Christmas
No one likes to think about it…
No one can really say no to Christmas. There’s a feeling between people best described, in colloquial terms, as magical. It’s an energetic and electric vibe, firing between individuals. Whether in anticipation of The Lord or Santa Claus, people are waiting excitedly and expectantly for someone important to come and bless their loved ones. And that’s beautiful, no matter which way you slice it.
When you trace Jesus all the way back to Adam, it doesn’t matter who people are waiting for between December 1st and 24th. Christmas is a Christian holy day — His name is kind of a big part of it — but it means, by extension, that all are welcome to share in it. That alone is worth celebrating.
But people waiting for Santa Claus don’t have the uncomfortable responsibility of also remembering that his coming will subsequently bring about his death. Christians have to bear that through Advent, all 12 days of Christmas, the feast of Epiphany, 40 days of Lent, and a week that starts with celebration and ends in the literal death of our God.
Because coming back from the dead isn’t all that miraculous or game-changing if you weren’t just merely dead, but really most sincerely dead first.
The innocent baby born to poor parents in a backwater town is going to grow up to be tortured…
