Meditation: The Work of Christmas Now Begins
As we take down our Christmas decorations to store them in the attic or the basement, let us be careful not to take down Christ. He was meant not for the attic, but for the living room of your heart and mine the year round, After all, His presence with us is what Christmas is all about.
Thomas Curtis Clark wrote,
What do we observe on Christmas Day?
The birth of a child in a land far away?
The glow of a star o’er the desert waste?…
Yes, of Christmas this is a part—
Angels and Wise Men and bright star shine;
But of Christmas this is the heart—
Christ came to dwell in your life and mine.
If He dwells in your life and mine, there will be no serious let-down feeling the “day after” Christmas, His Presence will make all the “days after” warm with His power, His forgiveness, His grace, His love.
So our visit to Bethlehem has come to an end; and like the Shepherds we go back to our routine duties with renewed faith in God; like the Wise Men we return not the way we came but another way, the way of Christ, the way of peace, love and joy; like the Mother of God, we shall keep pondering the meaning of Christ’s birth in our hearts to give us new vision and new joy for the year ahead.
Meditation: The Light Has Come!
“And this is the judgment.” writes St. John, “that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Man tried to put out the light. But the light did not go out. For God Himself is the light. His light shines today proclaiming to those who live “in the region and shadow of death”: “I am the light of the world: he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”
Jesus was born at night to show us that when it gets dark in our life, when we walk in the shadows, when we are overcome by despair, He will come to be our light and will enable us to say:
I hear the voice of Jesus say:
I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto me: thy morn shall rise;
And all thy day be bright.
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my Star, my Sun;
And in that light of life, I’ll walk
Till traveling days are done.
~ Presbytera Emily Harakas & Fr. Anthony Coniaris, DAILY MEDITATIONS and Prayers for the CHRISTMAS ADVENT Fast and Epiphany: Living the Days of Advent and Epiphany according to the Orthodox Church Calendar
