Tomorrow

With all the expectations we build into the holidays and with all the extra things we do, I suppose it is inevitable that when it’s over we breathe a sigh of relief. 

Having breathed our sighs of relief, we look forward to getting back to “normal.”  There’s the diet, for one thing.  Christmas food is not conducive to good health, but what would Christmas be without overfilled plates of delicious foods that come but once a year?  The foods, of course, include all those wonderful desserts.  We know we shouldn’t eat all that stuff, but Christmas comes but once a year, and we will get back to “normal” tomorrow. 

It occurs to me that many of us live our lives for tomorrow.  We are not unlike Annie who held optimistically to the hope that tomorrow would be better:

The sun’ll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
‘Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You’re always
A day
Away!

We’ve made it through the Christmas holidays.  We’ve held our tempers, most of the time; and we’ve kept stress to a minimum—well, we haven’t yelled at each other as much as we might have.  We’ve lived through it, knowing tomorrow would come and life could get back to “normal.”

Yesterday’s tomorrow may not be what we expected.  In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas holidays, something happened; and as a result, tomorrow is today and “normal” . . . well, “normal” is not the same as it was.

With the birth of Jesus, tomorrow is today.  The kingdom of the Lord has drawn near.  Oh, there is still another tomorrow; but to reach it, we will have to live today; and we dare not live today as if yesterday hadn’t occurred.  The angels’ message was and is true: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  Because of this, today’s “normal” is not the same as yesterday’s.

Oh, life is not all that different.  The extra pounds have not magically melted away.  Jobs await us and not all of them are pleasant.  Difficult people still abound.  Violence is still too much a part of society.  Our government leaders continue to play a mean game of tennis, waiting to see who gets blamed for knocking the ball over the cliff.  Age and disease still ravage our bodies and those of our loved ones.  In spite of the angels’ message, life is, as it turns out, quite normal after all.  Quite normal after all, except . . . .

It’s all quite normal, except for one not so small factor: A Savior was born in the city of David!  God has come down to dwell with us.  His coming may not have changed everything . . . it may not have put everything right; but his coming has made a new normal.  With Jesus, I believe in tomorrow, but I believe as strongly in today.  Today, in the midst of all that confronts and threatens my living, I am not alone. 

Welcome to tomorrow today.  Jesus has come!