4th Day of Christmas
4th Day of Christmas
Stop. Take a deep breath. Good. Now close your eyes and think back to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. What feelings did you experience? What do you remember seeing? Is there one thing (a feeling, something you saw, or an experience you had) that you want to linger beyond Christmas?
Listen. Luke 2:19 says “but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
Reflect. In the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel Mary and Joseph are staying in a room while Bethlehem is bustling for the census. Mary gives birth, wraps Jesus in cloths and lays him in a manger. Angels visit shepherds then shepherds visit the Christ child. Can you imagine having dozens of strangers come and visit just after giving birth?!? Eventually the commotion dies down and it’s just the holy family. Luke’s gospel says that “Mary treasured and pondered these things in her heart.”
So often we get caught up in the commotion of preparing for and providing the perfect Christmas for our families and friends. Time is filled with the commotion of gathering with others, opening gifts, enjoying good food, and generally being super stressed out. After Christmas day the wrapping paper is thrown out, decorations are put away, and even Christmas carols cease being sung (even though December 25th is only the FIRST of TWELVE days of Christmas). So I want to ask you: now that Christmas has come and gone will you join Mary in pondering in your heart what has just happened?
Jesus is God’s gift given to us. Thinking back to Christmas, are there other gifts you would like to keep and savor throughout the year? Perhaps it was time with family (and why was that so special?). Perhaps it was serving others. Maybe it was the gift of peace and quiet once all your guests left for the night. Don’t put those gifts away—treasure them in your heart for the year ahead.
Pray. Gracious God, we thank you for the many gifts we received on Christmas. We ask you to help us ponder and treasure the gift of Jesus, family, peace, and even the gift of commotion in the days ahead. Amen.
Carry On. If you haven’t already put everything away, hold onto Christmas cards received from family and friends. We store Christmas cards received until Lent when we take them out 2-3 cards each night and pray for those 2-3 families. Then we pass their cards around to take one last look before recycling or disposing of them.