-Strength for Today- "The Day After Christmas." - Luke 2:10-20.

    Christmas is great, but what do you do after the presents have been opened and the turkey has been eaten? I say this because the day after Christmas is a time for: 

• Pondering,  
• Praising and  
• Proclaiming 

God’s “miraculously, unspeakable Gift sent from heaven.” Most Christians have heard enough “sermons,” “prayed enough prayers” and have “rubbed up against the truth of Christmas, for so long,” that the real truth of Christmas can't penetrate their “calloused hearts.” And for that cause, “familiarity breeds contempt.” 

    So, the first way to respond to the “Christmas message” is to make it fresh in your heart by “pondering” it in a new way. Verse 19 says, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” After Christmas is good time to reflect on what you’ve just seen and heard. Pondering on the truth of Christmas is the only way to rid one’s mind of the “strange traditions” that causes many to question the validity of this truth. Such as:  

• Sitting around staring at a “dead tree” in your living room, and  
• Eating candy out of a “sock,” 

   With one’s mind focused on ideology, rather than on the true meaning of Christmas, in that, God’s Son was born as one of us so that each of us might be “born again” into the family of God. C.S. Lewis said, “we don’t need to be told new ideas so much as we need to be reminded of old truths.” That baby born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago is the Savior, and is the “real reason” for Christmas. 

It’s important that we all understand that truth. Because the baby whose birthday we celebrated yesterday can easily get lost beneath the “piles of earthly traditions” such as the “monstrosities brought on by society’s unrest, when we all should be celebrating God’s “joy, that Christ child who has come to the world!” So, in that pile of “unrest” that has ravished your mind, I need to ask you, "Where did you lay the baby?" 

Just like the shepherds had witnessed the world’s greatest birth announcement. I’m sure you've heard and read those words many times. But let me just highlight “one word” from verses 10-12, and it’s the word “you.” “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” 

    The angels said to the shepherds:  

• I bring “you” good news (of great joy for all the people).  
• A savior has been born to “you”.  
• This is a sign for “you”.  
• “You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”  

   The angel’s message to the shepherds was that Jesus is “your Savior,” “your King,” “your anointed gift, straight from God,” just for you! 

     Sometimes we focus on the fact that ‘God so loved the “world” we forsake the fact it’s “you” who’re in the world, that He so loved, and gave “sacrificially” for “you,” His only Son.” 

 Just like the shepherds who went away that first Christmas, (verse 20), “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” Like the angels who interrupted the shepherds sleep, the world today needs the “light of Christ” to “shine on us,” and “wake us up from our sleep,” and point us to the ONE who was victorious over evil at Calvary. So, all that’s left for us to do is tell the good news!

Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD