So It's All Over

The holidays are over (save for New Years but honestly, bed at nine sounds delightful) and all of the hustle and bustle is winding down.

My husband has started to deflate the inflatables, our recycling is piled higher than ever waiting for the next trash day, and I know the house will look so empty and blah once the decorations are put back into their boxes.

It's like the "magic" of Christmas starts to dissipate the moment the last gift is opened, the last bite of dessert is had, and the clock turns us forward into the 26th. Like a carriage that is now reverting back into a pumpkin, the Christmas Cinderella now goes back to her normal ways.

Does anyone not feel this shift in the world as it all fades away?

It has always saddened my heart that the grinches win over this time, that the kindness of Frosty the Snowman or the childlike wonder of Elf just go poof, into the New Year abyss.

The "magic" of Christmas shouldn't just come around once a year.

Sure.

The lights and inflatables, yes.

I mean, don't get me wrong, this festive house would put up inflatables and decorations for every small moment throughout the year (we kind of already do!).

But what lies in the crux of this magic is the goodness, the kindness, the respect, and the hope that we can pass along to anyone we meet.

To the stranger sitting next to us at the movies.

To the person we pass in the cereal aisle at the store.

To the mom who is struggling to keep her toddler from jumping off the tippy top of the playground fort at the park while holding her newborn babe.

Romans 15:2- 2"Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up."

Who are we, the least of us, if on any given day, at any given moment, we cannot extend the grace and fellowship of the Lord to one another?

Many things can be said and translated from a simple smile, a simple meeting of the eyes, a simple hello, a simple act of kindness.

Matthew 22:37-39- 37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

This is the "magic" that we should all live by and share throughout the entire year. Just because the lights have come down and the stores force us to buy our swimsuits for June in January (while I still eat my box of Christmas chocolates, thanks to my husband), we can be the Light for others.

We don't know what each other has walked through this season.

Someone may have lost their loved one.

Someone may have found out they no longer have a job to go back to.

Someone may be losing in the battle of addiction and see no way out.

Someone may be looking for a glimmer of hope in a dark day.

Let us love our neighbors as ourselves through the love of Christ that we have in our hearts, souls, and minds.

So even when it is all over,

May we build each other up for the good of our neighbor.

May we let the "magic" of Christmas shine in every day.

In every day knowing that we have hope and peace in the salvation that comes from having faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the gift and the reason for this season and every season.

Our Light, our Hope, our Peace.