It’s a feeling that comes every year. I felt it yesterday when our timed lights on the Christmas tree cut off for the last time of the Christmas season. We spent an entire month leading up to this day, and just like that, it’s over. I remember feeling the same way as a child. It’s the same feeling I would get when a good friend would have to go home after coming over to play. I call it the post-Christmas blues.

As a child, I felt the blues because there were no more presents or family gatherings, and I had to go back to school. Its certainly not as strong now, but I still feel it. I love Christmas and everything about it. Every year, I am sad to see it go. But why?

I don’t think its the lights, trees, decorations, or festivities. Nor is it the family meetings, delicious goodies, or joy of seeing my kids enjoy Christmas day. All of these things are great, but what is unique about Christmas, especially for followers of Jesus, is a month long opportunity, not to savor the external trinkets of Christmas, but to savor the reason for Christmas: the Savior Himself. And to do so with the people that we love.

As an adult, I’m not as concerned about all the external trappings of Christmas. I am concerned about worshiping Jesus as I ought to, and leading my family to do the same. And Christmas is an incredible opportunity to do just that. But here’s the thing. Every year when Christmas ends, I feel like I didn’t do enough.

I didn’t read enough advent devotionals. I didn’t meditate on the incarnation enough. I didn’t lead enough discussions with my family on the meaning of God sending His Son. I didn’t encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ enough. I didn’t sing the songs of the season with enough of my heart. I didn’t sit back and rest in Jesus enough. I didn’t share the news of His coming with nearly enough people.

The post-Christmas blues, then, are just a symptom of this underlying diagnosis: I am not enough. I will never worship, serve, and glorify God enough. But its at this point that I must remember the whole point of Christmas: that God knows I will never be enough. No one can be. But His Son is! True enough- I haven’t worshipped Jesus as much as I could have this season. But my relationship with God is not based on how much or how well I worship Him. It is based on the perfect life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. And in that I can rest in every season.

A Longing for Heaven

I have learned to embrace the post-Christmas blues. God has set eternity in our hearts, and if we are His people, nothing on earth will satisfy us. That’s a good thing, because we were not created for this world alone.

In heaven, we will get to spend unhindered time with God’s people, with family, and with friends. In heaven, we will get to rest and enjoy all that God has done for us. In heaven, we will get to worship Jesus perfectly. And we will be able to do all of these things without the distractions of this world.

In heaven, the warmth, the light, the joy, will never end. Because we will be with God. That’s what my heart longs for every Christmas. And that’s what remains just out of my grasp every year, so that I will never be fully satisfied until I take hold of it. Until then, I will be content to taste the coming beauty of heaven every Christmas season, and to embrace the blues that come along with it, as it reminds me year after year, the best is yet to come.