It is sad when Christmas comes to an end

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #01

January 6, 2025

It is sad when Christmas comes to an end

I’ll be taking down my Christmas tree, as well as all my other decorations, this week. The Christmas season is coming to an end as we begin to enter the season of Epiphany. This season is when we in the Christian tradition celebrate the unveiling of who Jesus really is. We move from recognizing Jesus as a cute baby to our understanding that he is the Son of God, God incarnate. 

During this week, one by one, my ornaments will go into a box. My nativity set will be packed away. My window candles will be packed back into their boxes. Even the stockings will be removed from the fireplace mantle. The house will look a bit less decorative when they are all removed. I always feel a bit of sadness when it is time to pack these decorations away.

And yet, I wonder if I would love these decorations as much if they stayed up all year. Would I enjoy them to the same extent if they stayed up for twelve months? I bet that they would lose their specialness if I looked at them for the entire year. Would they become ordinary, and less joyful, if they became part of everyday life each week of the year?

Too often we don’t see the beauty in the familiar. We overlook the joy of the ordinary. One reason that I love living in the northeast is that we have a change of seasons each year. If I were to live in a climate that stayed warm all year or in one that was cold all twelve months, I bet I would get bored with the weather. It is the change of seasons that helps me appreciate the beauty of each.

I have loved decorating my new house for Christmas this year. I have enjoyed the beauty that these decorations gave me this month and it will give me sadness to take them down. Yet, I know that they will be back in a year. They will not stay in boxes forever, and that gives me joy even as I feel sadness.

The sacred book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “for everything there is a season.” One season is now ending, and another will soon begin. I will strive to find the beauty and joy in each of the seasons that God is giving to us.

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