Rejoice

Luke 2:20 (KJV) And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

(Proverbs 26 also read)

I hear that the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are time when a lot of people get depressed and suicides surge.  I don’t know the statistics on it, but I can understand it.  Part of it starts before Christmas, even at Thanksgiving, among people who are lonely and isolated.  What strikes me is that often these people are lonely and isolated because they have chosen to live that way.  They have refused to involve themselves with other people and give of themselves.  It’s natural to assume that they would be depressed when others are rejoicing.  I can remember a time when I was in graduate school walking through the snow and looking at the houses with the warm windows and the lights glowing out as families were gathering for the holidays.

Then you have what is almost in the natural letdown on the day after.  This is almost a physical reaction.  Your mind your emotions, your actual physical body, get in a state of elevated enthusiasm, shall we say.  When the stimulation is removed often there is a downtime.  The day after Christmas can be that way.  Just turning off the Christmas music can take me into a spin.

So it’s time to be like the shepherds.  It’s time to consciously decide to focus on the blessings of Christmas.  We are celebrating, we did celebrate, the incarnation.  This is where we look at and focus on the fact that God became man and dwelt among us.  We now have a choice.  We can even make this a second Thanksgiving day with a focus on God, becoming man, or we can let ourselves naturally decline.

So?  Take a moment and remember what you were celebrating yesterday.  Forget the focus on family for a moment, and bring to mind that Jesus came to earth as a baby, as the beginning of the march toward the Cross, and the forgiveness of your sins. Rejoice.