A stack of plastic storage boxes are positioned near my Christmas tree. I’ve just lugged them up from the basement, and now, out of breath, I find that I don’t have the heart to open them. It’s time to put all of the Christmas decorations away. It’s a task that always makes me a little sad, a rite of passage from one year to the next that I’m not so eager to begin. When looking at life through the lens of the holidays, everything takes on a bright and cheery hue; New Year’s day flips a switch, and everything is gray again until the Spring. Sigh.
Oh, but wait a minute. On the podcast I’ve talked about how I’m changing my thinking this year, and that change begins right now! No more gloomy talk about winter. God is at work, creating something new. I don’t know what that something is, but it will be glorious and beautiful and completely different than what we expect. How can we be anything but grateful, and maybe even excited?
Look at this pretty nativity scene. It represents a rule broken: no more Christmas decorations! That was my resolution for this season…and I did pretty well until the middle of December, when I came upon this sweet little vintage piece in a favorite Kansas City antique shop. How could I resist it? Soon it will be wrapped in felt and placed in the box with all the other decorations, completely out of site (and mind) until next year, when I discover it as if for the first time on the eve of Thanksgiving. It’s on that night the tree goes up and my whole house takes on a magical glow. How much more fun it is to unpack the decorations than it is to pack them!
There is something to be said, I suppose, for the snug familiarity of my home in ordinary time. The furniture is moved back to its usual places; the lighting reverts back to more practical wattages. Once again it is the house I love all the rest of the year.
Still, I think this little nativity will go in the box last.
