2020 – Every Christmas morning, our children woke, rummaged through their Christmas Stockings, and quietly played as they pondered what may await them. They patiently eyed their presents nestled beneath the gleaming tree while they waited for us old folks to wake and feel our way through the house, eyes half-closed as we poured the first cup of steaming coffee and doctored it to a palatable flavor with cream and sugar.
When they heard us in the kitchen, the kids would watch and softly ask, “Daddy, read it – Please.”
The question wasn’t rushed – it was expectant. They wanted to hear the story of Jesus’s birth every year. Our tradition was always to read Luke 2:1-20 from the heavy, family Bible before we shared gifts. Then, we would open our presents, each child proudly sharing with their siblings the gifts they chose with care. Gosh, I miss those days.
And, once the gifts were all opened and the shredded wrapping collected in a large plastic trash bag, each would choose a gift and hunker down for hours while Nancy and I poured another cup of coffee and sat back to enjoy the smiles of our children. Afterward, it was breakfast, and Nancy would take control of the kitchen as she broke another Christmas meal record with the best ever dinner.
2020 – Back to Life
Then, it was back to life, work, the ambiance broken as the rest of the story unfolds – and so goes Twenty-twenty. We shuffle forward to January 1, just as I imagine Jesus’s parents did following that wonderful day in 0000. The story of the baby Jesus ends with everyone wondering what the shepherds told Jesus’s mother. But she didn’t share. Instead, Mary and Joseph set aside the glory of that day and went on to their duties. They dedicated Jesus according to the law, and they returned to their home in Nazareth.
So What’s Next?
So, what happened next? The protestant Bible doesn’t pick up the story for
another twelve years. But we can imagine what must have happened. Mary kept the home, nurturing The Son of God, getting to know Him the way only a mother may. She learned about the foods He preferred, got to know what angered Him and what pleased Him. However, one day, Mary discovered that she had become too comfortable or even confident in her relationship with Jesus – and she lost track of Him.
What happened on Christmas Day is one of the most important days in human history – It is the day that our redeemer entered the world. However, what happens next may arguably be every bit as essential. Just as Mary spent many years agonizing over Jesus’s likes and dislikes, His desires, and His fears, so should we spend our years yearning to know Him. And, just as Mary and Joseph, who after so many years in the company of The King, lost Him, so should we fear losing track of the one we desire to know.
Now that Christmas day is come and gone, what happens next for you?