Christian business

Each January most of us find occasion to shout, "Happy New Year!" Is your new year really happy? Do the peace and joy of the little Christ child still linger with you throughout the year? Or do you go back to business is usual after Christmas is over?
It is amazing how each year people go to such elaborate means to prepare for Christmas, and then the day after Christmas they return from the mountain-top experience back to the valley of the shadows at the rate of a dive bomber. Why is it so few people linger at or near the top, and why not come down at a more leisurely pace? True, some of us leave the decorations up until after New Year's Day, but why does talk of peace and joy and good will all stop on December 26th?
The answer to these questions is found in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel according to Matthew. Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John, go up on top of a mountain. There the disciples see Jesus transfigured before them. That particular vision is perhaps one of the greatest experiences those men had in all their lives up until that time. Peter wanted to preserve the event, and he offered to build "booths" there -- a kind of monument. Immediately Jesus led them back down the mountain! Jesus went back to work -- business as usual -- and healed an epileptic.
Peter, James, and John had to come down off the mountain and return to the valley of the shadows, but remember: Jesus came down the mountain with them. While it is true that on Christmas we have an intense awareness of the Christ-child in our midst, much like seeing a transfiguration, Jesus is just as much with us on the day after Christmas. When the decorations are down we just have to have a keener awareness to notice Jesus' presence.
So it is back to "business as usual" -- back to the valley of the shadows -- after Christmas. For those who have the eyes to see, the peace and joy and good will can linger. It just could be that we should consign our bodies to the valley, but let our hearts linger on the mountaintop!