And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Luke 2:21-24

LORD OF THE FLATLANDS

The wrapping paper is gathered and gone. We’re working our way through the leftover turkey. We’re already planning trips to the store for the dreaded returns and exchanges. We’re wondering how long we can put off taking down the decorations.

Christmas is over?
So… what are we doing for New Year’s?

• • •

For Mary and Joseph, the roller-coaster of anticipation had reached its culmination: Their son was born! Angels sang! Shepherds prophesied! Kings visited! 
But that was a few days ago. Now it was just the two of them, along with this baby that needed feeding and changing and burping and rocking.

It’s impossible to know what Mary and Joseph were thinking… if they had any inkling of how their lives would change. But what is striking is how apparently unaffected their next actions were. They did not wait for the angels to return with further instructions. They did not rush to Jerusalem, expecting parades and honors.

They knew what Jewish parents were supposed to do. So that’s what they did.

Circumcision on the eighth day. Completing Mary’s purification on the 40^th day. Presenting and redeeming the child at the Temple. Certainly they were overflowing with anticipation, still in shock from the other-worldliness of their experience, but it did not prevent them from living life as God prescribed it. It did not prevent them from being faithful in their now seemingly-unremarkable day-to-day.

• • •

Perhaps it’s just me, but it seems harder today to live in the day-to-day. We rush from event to event, from new-thing to new-thing. We’re not even done with the credits for the new blockbuster movie before we’re impatient for the next. Today’s biggest news story will be completely forgotten next week…because there has to be a ‘big story’ every day. This year’s iPhone was nice; when’s the next one? Our mountaintop experiences are so close together that it seems possible to leap from one to another, minimizing or even eliminating the need to walk the flatlands of daily life.

But real life is in the flatlands, the unremarkable day-to-day…our work, our responsibilities, our roles, our routines. You might call this kind of life “duty.” But to call it “duty” reduces it to rote, to a sense of heartless, mindless obligation, and minimizes the devotion required to serve daily…that sense of hope which has been disciplined and thus survives the tempests of circumstance that roll across the flatlands like summer thunderstorms.

So, is Christmas over?

There is an older tradition, which recognizes 12 days of Christmas and thus extends well beyond December 25. To follow that tradition is to see a day like today, a day in-between mountaintops, as a flatland that is illuminated and fertile, not barren or forbidding. There is joy to be found in the flatlands. The ineffable sense of hope we feel in watching a newborn child. The subtle-yet-profound blessing of daily bread. The familiar ‘now-and-not-yet’ of the Christian life, reflected in the accompanying hymn: Sweetness now in the thought of Him, sweetness later when we rest in His presence. The comfort of knowing that the King of the mountaintop is also the Lord of the flatlands… because He walked those flatlands Himself.

In the Pidyon Ha’Ben (the Jewish temple ceremony Luke is describing), the father prays “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.” This is not a prayer of “thanks for the mountaintops.” It is a prayer of “thank you for another day in the flatlands.”
John Tuttle, Director of Student Communications

GOD with me lying down, God with me rising up,
God with me in each ray of light,
nor I a ray of joy without him,
Nor one ray without him.

CHRIST with me sleeping, Christ with me waking,
Christ with me watching,
Every day and night, each day and night.

GOD with me protecting,
The Lord with me directing,
The Spirit with me strengthening,
For ever and evermore,
Ever and evermore, amen.
Chief of Chiefs.
Amen

Carmina Gadelica