Thoughts for the First Sunday after Christmas

Sunday, December 28: First Sunday after Christmas

  

Praise the LORD from the earth,

you sea monsters and all you ocean depths!

Do the same, fire and hail, snow and smoke,

stormy wind that does what God says!

Do the same, you mountains, every single hill,

fruit trees, and every single cedar!

Do the same, you animals—wild or tame—

you creatures that creep along and you birds that fly!

Do the same, you kings of the earth and every single person,

you princes and every single ruler on earth!

 ~Psalm 148:7-11

Read Psalm 148
 

So, how’s your Christmas season going? Do you feel like Christmas is already over and done with? Are you recuperating from a season of overabundance and overindulgence that seems long past, already?

Well, Christmas isn’t over yet! In the church, the Christmas season doesn’t even begin until December 25th, and it lasts until January 6th, the day we observe Epiphany, the celebration of when the magi arrived to meet Jesus. When the radio stations cut off their Christmas music cold turkey on the 26th, though, and when people we love leave us or we have to leave them, due to work or school schedules, the season of Christmas doesn’t seem all that great. Yet our in our psalm for today, the psalmist exhorts all things to praise God...even the snow and storms (it’s already snowed twice this fall, as I’m writing this, and I am so not happy about that!). I find it unexpected for snow to be mentioned in a psalm, and I’m not entirely sure how I think the snowstorm praises God, but if the psalmist says the snow should praise God, along with sea monsters and ocean depths and, well, every creature on earth, then I guess even when Christmas seems like it’s all over and done with, and I’m tired and would like just a little more time to see family or to sleep in, or maybe even for Sunday to hold off for a few more days, I still better find a way to praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

Prayer: O Great God, teach us how to praise you when we are caught up in the joy of Christmas and when Christmas seems to have passed us by and left us feeling tired and empty. Remind us that you are always worthy of our praise. Amen.