WAIT!  Don’t Pack up Christmas

 

ell now Christmas has come and gone and it is time to take down all of the decorations, if they are not already down and get back to our everyday ordinary lives.  

 

The stores have already taken away all signs of Christmas, the wreaths are off of the doors, the lights are down and the trees have been thrown away or in my case, boxed up.  There are no longer Christmas carols on the radio.  Christmas is gone.  Time to go back to work, back to school, back to the daily grind of life.  The Christmas parties are no more, the malls are no longer jam packed with eager shoppers, and Santa’s village has been torn down.  Yep, Christmas is gone!

 

During the last month, most of us made an extra effort to spend time with family and friends.  We went to parties, maybe special dinners.  We went to Christmas Plays at Church.   Family came into town, the list goes on and on.

 

Why is it that we do all of these things during the Christmas season only?  Because, that is what Christmas is all about.  It is about making time for your family, it is about a time of joy, a celebration of life the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  My old church used to have a Birthday party for Jesus on Christmas where the kids bring a toy as an offering that was then given to children who had nothing.

 

During Christmas we spend the whole month focusing on the little baby Jesus in the manger, and we seem to forget that that same baby who was born in a manger grew up into a man who conquered death and died on a cross for our sins.

 

So why after Christmas do we put everything away for another year.  We should be celebrating the birth of Christ year round.  The story did not stop in the manger.  Let me encourage you tonight to find one of your favorite symbols of Christmas, maybe it is an ornament, maybe it is a Christmas photo, maybe it is a wreath.  Find something and keep it up year round.  Keep it on a mirror in your room, on your desk, in your locker.  Somewhere that you will see it each and every day and be reminded of the reason we celebrated Christmas.  The celebration does not have to come to an end, the party is just getting started.  

 

Christmas may be over but don’t pack Christ away with the Christmas decorations!