What now?

The time after Christmas but before New Year's always seemed very strange to me. For a month and half everything about our country-economy, popular culture, music, etc-all builds up to one single day. But it is just a day, 24 hours in length, which passes with the same veracity as any other day. Sure it is a special day, filled with children's joy, large portions of food, and seeing people otherwise we would not, but my point is that it is one day, one day. After those 24 hours pass it seems like the only appropriate response when I wake up the next day on the 25th of December, is to say, "What now?" What do we do now? It seems like our country kind of says that as well. There is still another holiday but a week away, and a month and a half of build-up left in 24 hours. I know that now is when God can do the most work in me, now that the massive distraction of the 25th day of december is gone. Of course, what the day represents is so much deeper than what we make it.
I sometimes wonder what December 26th (or the equivalent because there is almost no certainty that the Christ was actually born on December 25th) was like after the savior was born. That had nine months of build-up, more if you factor in Sarah and all of the angelic visitors. And yet it still passes in just 24 hours. How different were the lives of those two people, who had checked into a manger, were after just 24 hours. I wonder if Mary awoke the next morning to the sound of her Lord crying and thought to herself 'What now?' What would she do-with a baby and yet not even married yet? People would still talk; I think so often the courage of Mary is overlooked, everybody knowing that the baby was born outside of marrige.
The reality is, it is not just 24 hours. The difference for Mary between the two days was that her little child, this world's Redeemer, had come, the long-prophesied, long-awaited day had arrived. Surely she asked herself, 'What now?'
Treats of the week: A berry cobbler for Christmas, mint inception cookies, peanut-butter marshmallow chocolate pudding cookies.
Restaurant of the week: Souplantation. Nothing more needs be said.
~Good Luck and Good Eats and a Merry Christmas.