One glance around my parent’s living room announces that Christmas is quickly going, going, gone. The recliner has reclaimed its corner from the Christmas tree. A flower arrangement has found its familiar spot on the coffee table. Bare spindles on the staircase no longer boast holiday ribbon, and the nativity is boxed for storage in the basement. Though the scene seems a bit sad, the first Christmas was much the same. After the burst of initial excitement, life settled back down. Joseph and family moved from the barn to a house in town. The manger was reclaimed as a feeding trough. Angels shifted to their next assignment, shepherds headed back to the pasture, and wise men returned to the east.
But just because life settled down didn’t mean life was the same. It wouldn’t be and couldn’t be. The newborn’s cry on Christmas night meant that a carpenter became the step-dad of the Savior. It meant that a scorned teenage mom would always ponder with wonder—and smile. It meant that shepherds who weren’t allowed in the temple had stared at the face of God. And it meant that some really smart guys saw a star travel the wrong way to lead them to the right place.
No matter how many benches Joseph might build, he couldn’t hammer away the fact that this baby’s mama had been a virgin. No matter how many suppers Mary might serve, she knew that the toddler in the high chair was the Son of the Most High. No matter how many straying sheep the shepherds might rescue, they were sure they were the ones who had been found. And no matter how many royals the magi might meet, they realized they had bowed to the one true King. For all involved in Bethlehem’s divine drama, all of life for the rest of their lives would be filtered through the fact that God had come to them—and for them.
Two millennia later that truth still holds top billing, and though the holiday season is ending, don’t pack the declaration away with the decorations.
Back-to-business never means back-to-business-as-usual once you realize that God came for you.
“For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
