Post-Christmas Emptiness

Take a minute to read W. H. Auden's poem Christmas Oratio that I posted earlier (Auden also wrote Thomas the Tank Engine).

The poem describes the emptiness that is left after Christmas. I'm sure that we can all share something of the sentiment of the poem.

Another Christmas is over. Quite often after Christmas we begin to think "what was that all about?" It's all been a bit of an anti-climax. This can be the case for all of us - especially those of us who are Christians. Christmas is one of the busiest times of year - the build up starts in November, then it's all over in a 2-week flurry of activity. And afterwards what then? Sometimes it all feels like it's gone a bit flat.

Christmas is described in John's gospel "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14) and in Matthew's "You shall call his name, Emmanuel-which means God with us" (Matthew 1:23). That's what happened and is still happening. God with us - now in our joys of having recently been with family and friends, God with us - even when we attempted "quite unsuccessfully-to love all our relatives."

Emmanuel-God with us: in the best of times and the worst of times and the mixture of times in between. Even in the post-Christmas emptiness that we so often feel.

Luke says of Jesus in his Christmas narrative "He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth," (Luke 1:14). Yet here we are far from rejoicing, Jesus can seem to be a million miles away.

Jesus came to earth to be one of us. He was fully human. He experienced the full gamut of human emotions; he knows what it's like to be a man on this earth.

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us". The literal translation from the Greek in John's Gospel is, The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. When you pitch your tent among people you can move around to any place, into any time--there among us any where, any when. Emmanuel - God with us: Not in some remote or fixed place in time, but with us, pitching his tent among us as we make our way through the unfolding of our lives. God knows us first hand. All of our experiences are common to God. He knows how we feel has come to fill the emptiness and to give us life in all its fullness.

If you are feeling flat after Christmas maybe it's time you began to have a relationship with Jesus. Then you will begin to live life to the full and can be filled with joy instead of the emptiness that Christmas leaves.