It’s over.

I’m sitting among the ruins of Christmas Day: the leftovers, the melted drinks, the burned down candles, the bits of wrapping paper still stuck in the carpet, the stomach ache of too many good things. Everyone’s sleeping and vegging, in some various form of the Christmas coma.

We made it. We made it all 25 days until Christmas. Through the shopping malls and the parking lots, through the programs and recitals, through the long lines and late nights, the complications and disappointments, the expectations, big and small joys, the moments of peace and disaster, craziness and calm. We made it through December.

Along the way, we prepared and planned both outwardly and inwardly. Last Sunday, my pastor preached about how we spent the month getting our hearts ready for the baby Jesus. Cleaning out the sin and the misplaced priorities so that our hearts would be ready to receive him when he came.

And now he’s here.

I experience it every year when I sit among the ruins of another Christmas gone: the letdown. Even though it’s been a crazy month, I’ll miss all the lights and music. I’ll miss the quiet time of reflection every night while I was writing. I’ll miss the expectation, the holiday buzz, the excitement written all over my children’s faces. I’m sad it’s all over. Now what?

My pastor ended his sermon with a beautiful thought, one that I scooped up and held tight. I knew I’d be needing it tonight. He said, “Christmas is just the beginning. Christmas is just the beginning of the story of our salvation.”

It’s just the beginning! It isn’t the end! When we come off this holiday high, we leave all the outward trappings and buzz behind, but we carry Jesus with us into the new year. He is here. He’s in our hearts. The more we focus on that during the month of December, the less we experience the holiday letdown. If we’ve been focusing on Jesus coming…and he’s here…then we realize that we have so much to bring into the New Year.

I am amazed again and again of the parallels between the celebration of Advent and the waiting we as New Testament Christians do all year ’round. We are always in the advent season, really. No matter what the calendar says, we are always waiting for that second Christmas. We are always getting our hearts ready for him to come for the second time. And that Christmas, well it really will be just the beginning. The beginning of a celebration that has no letdown, no melted drinks, no farewells to family or friends, no disappointment or regret, no expectation unfulfilled, no hope unmet. What a Christmas that will be.

Immanuel, “God with us,” will have a whole new meaning.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3). 

It’s only the beginning, my friends.

Merry Christmas!