It’s the day after Christmas, and my house is still. Everyone’s sleeping but my dog and me. I’m sitting by the twinkle lights of my tree thinking about the past couple of months and how it’s all over.
After months of planning. After weeks of shopping and searching for just the right gifts. After hours and hours and hours of baking and wrapping and plotting and planning….we’ve opened the gifts and eaten the food and goodies. We laughed and joked and cried and laughed again.
And now….it’s the day after. It’s over. But is it?
The excitement of the day is over. The culmination of all the planning and activity of the season is over. But Christmas is not over.
The toys and games and everything that were once only items on a Christmas wish list are now a real part of my kids’ lives. They can hold them and use them and enjoy them and play them.
The smiles of pure joy on their faces as they opened “just what they wanted” are tucked away in my memory forever. Worth every minute. Every peaceful, fun, panicked, sometimes stress-filled minute of the preparation.
Now for some rest….and then there’s always something else to plan. Mookie’s birthday is only 27 days away.
There were 400 years of silence after hundreds of years of prophecy of Messiah. Then the angel appeared to Zechariah and broke the silence. Then to Mary. Then to the Shepherds in the field.
After centuries of foretelling and preparation, the fullness of time had come. Finally. Messiah is born.
The first couple years still had some excitement with Simeon and Anna at the temple when they dedicated Him…of angelic activity with dreams of going to Egypt and returning home. Of magi coming from a far land with gifts for Messiah. But then, it was just mundane life….
Now Mary has to raise the Son of God! Change His diapers. Get up with Him every two hours to nurse Him. Teach Him to walk.
She taught the One who created all we can see – every color in the universe – what was blue and red and green. She taught Him His numbers and how to read.
There’s so much excitement in the preparation. Of imagining how the kids will react when they open their gifts. Of the lists and the shopping and the baking. And excitement in the day itself.
Then sometimes there can be such a let-down once it’s over. It becomes part of our memories and it’s back to mundane life.
There was such excitement in the prophecy, and the angels and John’s birth and Jesus’ birth and the shepherds and heavenly hosts in the sky.
And then…..just the mundane tasks of raising the baby. There was 30 years of day-to-day living before Jesus entered His full-time ministry.
Some of us are in the dreaming stage. Keep dreaming and dream big. Faith will be made sight and that dream will become part of our everyday life.
Some of us are in the culmination stage in the midst of all the excitement. It’s Christmas morning. Our dreams are being birthed and it’s still so exhilarating.
Some of us are in the faith-made-sight-a-while-ago stage where it’s the day after. Or month after. Or years down the road. We prayed and believed and stood and waited and prepared and now…we got the promotion. We got our miracle. Our dream has come true…
…and things are mundane. Ho-hum. It’s work. Putting away the gifts. Raising the baby. Doing the work that follows the dream.
Sometimes we want to balk at mundane. Where’s the excitement? I didn’t sign up for changing diapers…I want angels in the sky singing Glory to God!
But there’s purpose in “the day after.” Jesus had to grow up. Had to learn to read and write. He had to go through mundane life in preparation to fulfill His destiny.
If Jesus had never learned to walk and talk, He couldn’t have gone around doing good and healing. He couldn’t have said, “Lazarus, come forth!” He couldn’t have walked up Calvary, hung on that cross, and said, “Father, it is finished.”
There’s purpose in the mundane days of life. That’s where character is built and relationship with Him grows deep. It’s where we rest and refresh. (Who else is exhausted by noon on Christmas? Rest comes the day after. 🙂 )
It’s where He prepares you for the destiny that still lies ahead.
Let’s stay steady and press into Him and enjoy the mundane days. There’s still so much more to come, and we want to be ready when we get there.