It happens every year. After Christmas and New Year celebrations end, a melancholy comes upon me and I struggle to make sense of life.
I’d like to blame it on the cold, but weather has little to do with it, for the melancholy has come in desert sun and in northeast snow. It isn’t about depression, or seasonal affective disorder, or disillusionment.
It’s about living out the reality of Christmas once the lights on the tree have gone out.
When my winter world sparkles with white light and presents I can believe that God is here and he is Good. I can believe that all I do matters, that I can make a difference, that the world can be redeemed.
And then the lights go out and the world feels dark. And I understand how my toddler felt when I used to turn the lights off and leave him alone in the dark with Jesus.
It’s now when I need the verses I have committed to memory; it’s at this point when my theology faces off with my reality; it’s in this place that I need Truth to feed my soul and calm my spirit. It’s today that my Faith needs to walk.
How about you? As the lights of the tree fade into your memory and photo book, how do you live the reality of Christmas?
Marilyn R. Gardner 