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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” Matthew 1:22-23 NIV
When I was a child I remember getting the Sears “Wish Book” in the mail every year sometime in September. This was a hefty full-color Christmas catalog filled with toys, but also with clothing and all sorts of products to get everyone excited about Christmas. We may complain about Christmas decorations going up before Thanksgiving (or Halloween), but the Sears “Wish Book” literally came out in late Summer or early Fall, so selling Christmas earlier every year is nothing new. And as children we seemed to pine for those gifts for months. As adults we are more interested in spending time with loved ones and having some time off from work. But most of us still approach the holiday season with childlike expectation, which is often followed by something approaching “letdown” the day after Christmas, or at least after the holidays are over and we’re back at work or school.
But if we really think about what Christmas celebrates, the days after Christmas should be the ones where we celebrate the joy of what Christmas really means. That is, the days after the original Christmas (the birth of Jesus) were days of nurturing our Saviour, days to enjoy the presence of God’s gift to us, which is Emmanuel, or God with us.
–Christopher Simon
