The Quiet Gift of Christmastide
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! The New Year almost inevitably arrives with the promise and hope of what 2026 may bring. We may find ourselves clarifying our goals, doubling down on healthy habits, and extending ourselves toward new projects as the energy of a new year motivates and inspires us toward what may be. This is good, but we must also be reminded and called back to sacred time, where we find the rhythms and patterns of the good news of Jesus Christ. After all, it remains Christmastide until the Epiphany, which we celebrate on January 6. It might do us well to linger at the manger a moment longer before we rush off into the excitement of a new year.
There is a stark contrast between the rush and pressure of New Year’s resolutions and the hushed quiet of the Christ Child born in Bethlehem. The resolutions that come with a new year tend to center on optimizing human potential. We focus relentlessly on how we might wring the last bits of efficiency out of our schedules and what we can do to press further toward our goals. But the promise of Christmas offers us a different pace. The pace is set by the Christ Child, who enters the world meekly, dependent on a human mother and father. It is not a story of human achievement but a story of quiet dependence on God. God’s agenda for humanity—and for you and for me—is not marked by an aggressive montage displaying varieties of human strength. One might imagine that if God were intent on restoring humanity, it might be to the tune of “Eye of the Tiger” as humanity gets whipped into condition. But no, the first key step in human redemption is God’s full identification with human frailty and weakness. There is no more vivid picture of human dependence than an infant in its mother’s arms.
So, let us linger at the stable a little longer before we rush off to optimize 2026. There is great strength in naming our human frailties and laying them before the God who has chosen to identify with us. We may find that 2026 gives birth to greater wonders than we could ever produce on our own if we allow ourselves to depend on God.
Fr. Rob Lofberg