Taking Christmas Into the New Year

The days between Christmas and the New Year often are days of reflection. If you have some time off from school or work you can take time to recharge yourself and prepare for the next year. You can get refreshed and re-motivated.

Unfortunately, too many of us spend the time in a blitz of shopping, bustling, and partying. This can cause us to miss the very message of Jesus' birth. The incarnation is God's entry into a time and place in history that is both specific, real and endless.

Why did God choose to become one of us? Why does the Creator continually create through creation? What is the message of God becoming both human and divine and completely vulnerable and dependent on others as a little baby?

Furthermore, what can we learn from this? How dependent are we on God? Are we only trying to get by in life, pushing our personal agendas upon the world? Or are we letting go to the amazing grace that trusts that the Higher Power wants only our good spiritual development and transformation through love and service?

Jesus came as a baby. Scripture tells us that those called to visit him during his infancy were simple shepherds and wise men from the East (some today might consider them pagan new agers!). The religious leaders of the day didn't come around. The King of the Jews at the time, Herod, was so paranoid and afraid of losing power that he tried to kill Jesus. Not knowing which baby he ordered a wholesale slaughter of all baby boys two and younger in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). The horror!

Anyone who has truly traveled a personal spiritual journey will testify to the changes that happen as a result of the journey. You must have your own conversion. It will feel like dying before it will feel like living. That is the pattern set by the Christ.

Go forth into the New Year by first taking stock of where you are, then giving thanks, and then doing for others. It is amazing how often I resist these directions. Yet every time I give myself to this simple recipe for living I grow closer to God and more appreciative of each day...each moment.