"THE MONTH AFTER CHRISTMAS"
Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I’d nibbled, the eggnog I love to taste
From all the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
Depressed I headed to the couch for a slumber
I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rare,
The holiday ham, the bread and the cheese
And the way I’d never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt
I said to myself, as only I can
"You can’t spend the winter disguised as a man!"
So away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
’Til successfully all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won’t have a nibble--not even a lick.
I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore---
But isn’t that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, life’s no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!
But good news: only 357 days until we can do it all over again…
Just like in this poem the holidays must come to an end. We finish unwrapping the presents, see people off at the airport and take down the glitter and gold decorations. But now what happens? People return to work and for some there is large sense of let down after the season is over. The sense of being down after all the festivities are over is not something unusual. It is a normal feeling that many of us get. Think about it. You’ve spent weeks preparing; planning and anticipating a “big event”and now it is finally over. For some of us this feeling is relatively minor and we get on with life quickly, for others it can easily lead to depression.
I sometimes wonder if Mary and Joseph didn’t experience that same feeling. What do you think it was like for Mary and Joseph most of the time? I mean, after the shepherds left, the visits from the angel stopped, the Magi had long gone. They likely stayed in Bethlehem for the first year and a half or two, and then we know they took off in the middle of the night for Egypt. But what was it like the rest of the time – day in, day out: raising a child, earning a living, keeping a home (with all that entailed two thousand years ago). I wonder how Mary and Joseph coped in the day to day routine, knowing their son was unique, yet still in all appearances just like every other child around them. Still having to change a diaper, mush up food, teach him to walk and talk and how to act.
Even for Mary and Joseph, life would have gotten back to normal after the “big event”. Joseph would have had to find work for money to live on. Mary would have tended to the house, cooked the meals and cared for the children. I’m sure there were moments of frustration, confusion, and uncertainty just like there are for all of us. The difference for some is I think Mary realized one of the keys to coping with the let down: she “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.”(Luke 2:19). I don’t believe that she marginalized or discounted any of the things she experienced through the “big event” (the birth of Jesus Christ). She just carried them with her through the normal time, through the ever day routine. She held the memories close, thought through them again and again, re-claimed the promises over and over and thus found the strength to get through another day.
As we start to climb down from the holiday “high” of presents, parties and food it is easy to start feeling a bit down as life starts to return to normal. But what have we, Christians, to be depressed about? Absolutely nothing! Let’s reflect back on what God has done for us, what He has promised to us, and where it is He is taking us. In Luke 1:68-79, Zechariah praised God with his first words after months of silence. It is a psalm of praise that focused on a whole list of things that God has done for us. So again, I ask you, what do we, as Christians, have to get depressed about? Again, I tell you nothing. Instead rejoice and ask God to continue to guide you and lead you through 2012!
