The day after Christmas. Look around you and what do you see?
Stores are trying to unload Christmas inventory at reduced prices. Smart shoppers are taking advantage of the sales, looking ahead to next Christmas before this Christmas is barely cold.
Throngs of people making returns and exchanges keep the lines backed up throughout the store.
Toys that were desperately desired yesterday are unplayed with today.
Some marriages are suffering this morning because somebody failed to pick up on the hints, therefore the expected present never materialized. While this seems like the most ungodly attitude to have (and it is), I actually know of a professing Christian woman who didn’t receive what she expected one Christmas and she let her husband know about it – and everyone else as she retold the story to anyone who would listen. She was genuinely miffed and disgusted with him. While she is degrading her husband to others, she is making herself sound like an ungrateful, spoiled brat!
There is an emotional letdown, a deflation from the hype of yesterday. This year probably isn’t as bad as other years since we have the weekend and Christmas gets extended. However, when Christmas is on a Monday, everything returns to normal on Tuesday. We go from the excitement and anticipation of holiday preparation and celebration to an almost instantaneous hitting the brakes and a plunge back into the “normal.” The surrealness of Christmas is replaced by austere reality.
I wonder what it was like for Mary and Joseph the day after Jesus was born. Mary must have been exhausted and sore from a delivery without medication. Joseph? I imagine he was out looking for something to feed his family and trying to find a more stable living situation than a stable. According to Luke 2:21-22, “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (22) And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord.”
The journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was only about 6 miles. We would assume that the circumcision took place in Bethlehem, giving Mary’s body time to fully recuperate before the journey to Jerusalem.
After this, the wise men would have made their appearance. You all know that they weren’t at the nativity, right? And the Bible doesn’t tell us that there were three. Could have been – but there could have been 30.
Matthew 2:11 says, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”
We know after this that Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with Jesus to escape Herod’s wrath. When it was time to return, they settled back in Nazareth. I would imagine that Mary and Joseph never knew another dull day!
If you want to combat the dullness or letdown of a day, get busy living for the Lord, serving Him, and following His leading in your life. To live in the center of God’s will is the most exciting thing you’ll ever do. And you will not be disappointed!
Psalms 16:11 says, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
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