January 9 Home Communicator – Is Christmas over? And what about those New Year’s resolutions?
Greetings and Happy New Year! I hope that you had a blessed Christmas. With all the build-up to Christmas – the programs and concerts, the get-togethers and celebrations, the shopping and baking, etc. – the days after can be a bit of a letdown. Our family had a wonderful time at our Christmas party. I especially enjoyed watching the younger children as they played games, decorated Christmas cookies, and opened presents. As we were all packed up and were getting ready to leave, one of the youngest looked up at his dad and asked, “Does this mean Christmas is over?” His dad answered, “Yes, it is.” The look on the little one’s face spoke volumes – quite a mixture of emotions.
Since then, I spent some time thinking about that question and realized that for us as Christians, Christmas is not over but that it marks the beginning of and/or renewed dedication to our work in God’s kingdom. If we look at Jesus’ life and God’s Word, we realize that now that Christmas is ‘over’ the work of Christmas begins. Christmas celebrates Jesus’ coming to this world. And when He did, He gave us the perfect example of how we are to live our lives as ‘tellers of THE story’.
If we need to make any New Year’s resolutions, let us resolve to refocus on our school theme this year of ‘Telling the Story’ and go into the world to both tell THE story and reflect Jesus to those in need. The work of Christmas is the calling of people who have experienced the faithfulness of God and know the kingdom of God is within them. They use their God-given gifts to serve everyone as they would serve Christ Himself. When we show love to people around us, we are ‘telling THE story’ of God’s love and His faithfulness. Our theme verse from Psalm 26 states – “Lord, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.” Because of God’s faithfulness to us, let’s refocus on telling THE story because when we tell it, the living Christ is present. What a privilege it is to be part of the narrative ourselves and to get to tell the magnificent story of a God who loves us so much that the human mind cannot conceive it. This is the work of Christmas!
Telling THE story together,
Mary Broene, Middle School Principal
