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We put away Christmas last weekend. Wrapped up baby Jesus in Bounty paper towels,
stuffed the angels next to a glittery star and red-nosed Rudolf into a box next
to all the other boxes stacked inside our attic where Christmas sleeps in our
household until late November. The giant tree which occupied about a third of
our living space is laid to rest in something akin to a coffin shoved against
the back wall of the garage.
Our house is stripped of all the artificial evergreens,
tinsels and trinkets that somehow got attached to our faith in the scandalous Almighty God who came to live among us,
stinky diapers and all.
No more twinkling lights. No more egg-nog induced coma. No
parties. No concerts. No cute Christmas plays.
All that is left now are bare walls, cleared out cabinet
surfaces and empty floor space.
And us.
The plain, old us, unaided by staged photos, seasonal excitement, hype and
ambiance fueled magic.
I look around, not sure if I can handle it.
This ordinary, grayish, bean-soup kind of day.
I feel as if a warm fuzzy coat was stripped off of me and I
am left half-naked, off-centered, like a shivering addict going through withdrawal.
It’s not like I set out to feed my soul a steady diet of
sugarplums at the beginning of the season.
But when all the sugarplums are suddenly gone, I wonder if any soul can thrive on a diet of sugarplums alone?
Can a soul even survive
on sugarplums alone?
I stand in the middle of the room, taking in this empty,
this Christmas-shaped void, savoring its gritty texture.
Perhaps it’s not what I want, but deep down I know it’s what
I need.
What are you going to
put there where the tree used to be? There is all this empty space now… My parents look at me, ready to pounce into large furniture moving action.
But, before their question is asked, I know it's already been answered in another universe.
I think I’ll leave it
empty… I want to keep it empty for now...
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over
the waters. Genesis 1:1-2
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