Christmas is a time to get "hooked" on Jesus. And that is a condition from which you will need no withdrawal. A Catholic Sister, who is blind, told me she has an incurable disease. I thought she was going to elaborate on her blindness which came as a result of diabetes. Rather she said, "I have the Jesus disease." Then she went on to say that she wanted no cure for that state of being.

However, we will often have to admit that there is a post-Christmas slump. It is a bit of a let-down after a season’s high. In the fourteenth century Thomas Tusser wrote:

At Christmas play and make good cheer,

For Christmas comes but once a year.

So it does. Once a year we can crawl out of the dark caves of selfishness and blink our eyes at a day of cheer and good-will. We show kindness to those we might otherwise ignore, or at best tolerate. We drag through eleven months of dog-eat-dog policy and all of a sudden adopt the good neighbor policy for one month. The stabs in the back change to pats on the back for these fleeting days.

It almost seems like a make-believe world. It is sort of wonderful. But like Cinderella, we know that when the clock strikes twelve we must rush back to the real world in which we live. Next year we shall again don the smiling mask and grab the bag of gifts to play the game of Christmas once more.

Well, if it only lasts about a month, it perhaps is still worth it. No one can dismiss it as just a season of sentimental slush. The problem is the withdrawal. Bills, loneliness and weariness seem to be left in the wake of this high celebration. God doesn’t want it that way. He did not invade the earth for a few brief days in order to spread around some goodies and say "hello" only to retreat back to heaven. God is no Santa Claus who empties his bag of toys and then goes back to the North Pole to get ready for next year. God came to stay. He wants his birthday party extended around the calendar. He wants the Christmas style to become a life-style. Lots of love, thinking of others, expressing it with gifts, family gatherings, worship celebrations ... that could make quite a full year of real living.

People feel good at Christmas time. It is no wonder, for they are doing the things that make for good feeling. Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It works! Walking out of your front door to show love and kindness to a neighbor has always been the path on which you meet God.

The test of the Christmas season is whether or not we have a withdrawal from its impact. If we hang up the concept of good will in the hall closet after the festivities, we shall inevitably have an emotional let-down. However, if we continue to wear the garment of the Spirit of Christmas, the lights will continue to twinkle long after the tree has been taken out of the living room and burned in the backyard.

John and Jane were two fine young people awaiting Christmas Eve with its profusion of gifts. Finally the time came for them to open the gifts from their parents. John got a flashy new suit and Jane received a colorful dress. Both young people thanked their parents graciously. Christmas Day arrived and the family was getting ready to go to church. John came down the stairs, whistling away, wearing his new suit. Jane came later with her coat already on. Mother noticed Jane was not wearing her new dress. Mother was disappointed but said nothing.

After several weeks of never wearing the dress, mother finally asked her daughter, "Didn’t you like the dress we gave you?" Jane responded, "Yes, didn’t I thank you for it?" The fact was glaringly clear. The dress was a disaster to the daughter.

God gave a Gift ... his only begotten Son. To be sure, we thank the Father in heaven each Christmas at the festive worship service in church. But the crux of the matter is found in the presence of that Gift during the days that follow. You can’t keep the Gift in a closet for he will break out of it and move right out of your house.

To be sure, the intensity of the Christmas season cannot be continued. It is sort of a mountain-top experience. It can, however, be a continuing inspiration. Three disciples, Peter, James and John, were privileged in seeing Christ transfigured on the mount. They never forgot it. Peter states in his letter, "... we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain" (2 Peter 1:16-18).

Christmas can be a mountain top as the Good News is proclaimed, carols sung, love spread all around. And as we head back down into the valley the terrain is a bit different, but the vision and the spirit of those days never leave us. There is no withdrawal from the impact of it all.

In that great adventure story, "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London, Buck the wolf dog was a creature of the wild. The urge of his wild heritage frequently pulled against his loyalty to John Thornton. The pull was so strong it could hardly be resisted; but there was also the powerful pull of love to his master. Buck had shared Thornton’s fires and food, had felt his hand on his tawny coat of hair, and had looked into his eyes. This is the way it was described:

"Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously deep in the forest. But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and the green shade, the love of John Thornton brought him hack to the fire again."

Is not this the parable of life? May the love of God so gloriously demonstrated at Christmas draw us back again and again to his side. As we are lured by the longings to live our selfish way, may the memories of a God-oriented Christmas style bring us back to the Master’s way.

It was said of Mary, "But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:18). Maybe that is the key. Mary saw and heard all those wonderful happenings that first Christmas. She, was determined not to let go of any of it. There was going to be no withdrawal.

You never have to say, "Good-bye to Christmas" for it was meant to go with you all the way. "And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20).