The day after Christmas is here. The Christmas pageants and church services are done. The presents you’ve carefully chosen have been distributed and wrapping paper abounds in piles on your floor. The only evidence of meals specially prepared are the leftovers. Your loved ones are once again busy with their own lives and you are left alone—what do you do now? Maybe it’s time to do some day-after Christmas shopping, with exchanges and returns at local stores. Or maybe it’s a time to enjoy the peace of the day and reflect back on the Advent season and Christmas day. Or perhaps it’s a time of hollowness because you feel like you are all alone. I’ve done and felt all of these things. What do we do now?

The pressing question is, “With whom is God pleased?” This question is critical because people are unable to “fear not” if they are concerned with whether God is pleased or angry with them. This question uncovers our basic impulse: we think we must do something pleasing for God to be pleased with us. We imagine that we must do something that makes Him happy, that at least takes the edge off His anger. We presume that He must be angry with us since we are sinners.

On this holy night, Christians will be singing this beloved carol. If ever a hymn captured the depth, the wonder of Luke 2:1-14, I’d say this is the one. Four verses that many will come to know by heart—four verses that speak to the predicament, the person, the promise and the plea that are wrapped up in the story we celebrate this night.

On the day before Christmas Eve, how wonderful is it that the daily lectionary reminds us of the beautiful, inspiring, encouraging song of Mary! Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, actually took place perhaps nine months before the birth of Jesus. Mary and Elizabeth had been visited by angels who announced that they would both give birth unexpectedly. But even after nine months has passed, and we stand at the threshold of the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Mary’s song still could not be more appropriate.

Jesus expresses great love and mercy for the very people who would soon be hurling accusations and insults at Him, spitting on Him and mocking Him. He laments profoundly that they refuse to be gathered under His protecting care.

In 2005, I hated Christmas. Of course, as a pastor I couldn’t really give outlet to my true feelings. What congregation wants to hear that their pastor hates Christmas? But I did. My wife and I had been waiting for two years to be selected as parents to a precious girl or boy through open adoption, the process where birth parents select the couple they want to serve as the baby’s parents. Advent, a season of waiting, seemed as if it would never end.

Only five more days left until Christmas Day. Do you still have presents to buy, packages to wrap, baking, decorating, hurrying and scurrying to do these last days before we celebrate our Savior’s birth?  I was talking to a seasoned kiosk vendor at one of the larger malls a while ago and he told me that he was encouraging the newer vendors in the long hallways not to despair if sales were slow the first few weeks of December. He smiled and told them they will make loads of money come the last week before Christmas when desperation sets in. I’m pretty sure he was referring to most of us as the time remaining for Christmas shopping quickly evaporates.

The question our Lord asks in verse 31 of this passage is haunting in our day and age. “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like” (ESV)? Meditate on that for a few minutes. Consider what Jesus was saying then and what He is saying to us now.