The Transiton

Yesterday we had our family time with the Carrolls and now the holiday is officially over for us. It's been a wonderful Christmas. I've soaked up and enjoyed the celebration of Christ's birth, family time, way too much food and a little blogging break. I woke up this morning without an alarm clock and felt refreshed and renewed....and then I came downstairs.

What is it about Christmas decorations that looked so beautiful before Christmas and so bereft the day after? There is dust (a friend loves to call it the "velour" on her furniture) covering every surface, and my floor looks like a herd of rhinos just trampled through. This house needs cleaned out and cleaned up. I'm ready to pare down, and my Better Homes and Gardens that focuses on New Year organization is calling me.

Some years I get a little case of the post-Christmas blues, but this year I feel a real sense of expectation as I look forward. I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions, but I have some goals in mind. I also have some promises from God that I'm rolling around in my heart that are fanning the flames of hope and expectation in my heart. In this current state of faith and optimism, I think I'll skip the news this morning in my routine!

I'm praying that each of us transition into the New Year that we'll ponder the wonder of God's promise to bring us out of the old and into the new. Colossians 3 is full of words that encourage us to put off the old and put on the new. It begins like this, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Col. 1:1-3) Let's set our hearts and minds on Christ today!