For most people Christmas ended the evening of the 25th and now they are biding time to ring in the new year. For some of us though, the seasons of Advent and Christmas are the beginning of our year not the end of it. The 25th was the beginning of twelve days of joyfully celebrating, in big and small ways, the birth of our King. It will culminate in a great big ol’ Epiphany feast with roasted pig, copious amounts of delicious foods, libations, laughter and cheer.
But it really is much more than that. It’s not just a beginning of a new church year it also points us to something bigger, something more, something to come.
Have you ever considered the baby Jesus being laid in a manger…a feeding trough?
“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…”
It wasn’t just a miraculous birth. It was a miraculous birth that pointed to a miraculous death and resurrection.
“The world is not as just, not as loving, not as whole as we know it can and should be. But the coming of Christ and His presence among us ~ as one of us ~ give us reason to live in hope: that light will shatter darkness.”
The Common Place 