Baby Christ Grew Up--Do Christians?

Jesus is born. Christmas is over. Some people are already posting pictures of their treeless living rooms and spotless kitchens, devoid of any remembrance of Christmas. Some people will not post a picture of their living rom for another three months because they know the garlands are still up and they do not want to deal with haters. Whatever works.

I'm not quite ready to give Christmas up yet. But I do wonder about the aftermath. Not mine, but His. I do imagine what happened after the stable was empty and the shepherds and magi had all gone home. What then?

The Bible gives us a few hints. Jesus was sought after—in order to kill him. Already, before he could walk, someone wanted him dead. His family ran to another country to be safe. That's certainly a familiar story to anyone who pays attention to the news this year.

The glass bubble didn't last long.

Jesus' first five years were not the idyllic preschool romps through the countryside we imagine. They were filled with fear and danger. Within months, the world (and the devil) knew there was a new power in the world intent on turning our feeble ideas of power upside down and endangering our notions of what we deserve. Anyone intent on that becomes endangered himself.

Often, we ask ourselves the question, “What next after Christmas?” We remember the slightly depressed felling we got as children, looking around at all the loot a week later, and wondering, “Is that it?” As adults, we do the same. We look around at all the carnage of wrapping paper, boxes that need to be refilled with decorations, and the reality check of our credit card bill, and we wonder, “Is that it?”

It is, if we never look beyond the baby in the manger. It's time now to look at what happens next. It gives us an excellent clue as to what should happen next for us. 

Is this it? No—there is a whole lot more. But it involves danger and fear and confronting power that does not enjoy being confronted. It could get messy. Even messier than childbirth in a stable.

This is not comfortable to think about the week after Christmas. We prefer to keep the cuddly baby. Who wouldn't?

But when we pack him away, don't we want to know if it mattered at all? Doesn't something nudge us to wonder if there's a point beyond shiny paper and jingling bells? And even if we're Christians who do believe there is, is there anything in our lives that demonstrates we know the grown up Jesus? That we've looked deeply at the aftermath for that baby and we've signed on to what it means?  

So let's move into it in the coming year. What happens next? What does Christmas move into? Does what happens to baby Jesus have anything to say about what should happen to us? Let's discover that together in 2016. I'd love to hear your discoveries.