This is that odd week in the year that is not quite like any other. Because of the way the holidays fall, it is possible, depending on who your employer is, to take four days’ vacation and have ten days in a row off to do what you wish. It is the end of the year with a fresh, uncluttered, New Year just ahead.
This coming Sunday, if it had a popular name, would be “Low Church Sunday.” Across the board it is traditionally the lowest attended service of the year regardless of denomination.
Since New Year’s Eve is this Sunday, it may be that people who have not dealt with their sins might, but likely will not, see this as their “last chance” to make things right with their maker before entering the next year. It is poor theology but since when is poor theology in short supply?
And, though the 12 Days of Christmas have barely begun, in America — in the evangelical South anyway — many people are heaving a huge sigh of relief that Christmas is over and entering into the next season. That would be the College Football Bowl Games season.
It is also the time when people start thinking about putting away the Christmas decorations and either repacking or discarding the Christmas tree. Most will take down the outside lights, but some will, as country singer Gretchen Wilson sang in “Redneck Woman,” “… keep my Christmas lights on, on my front porch all year long.”
For my wife and me (most people, it seems, would say “my wife and I” but that is incorrect English usage in this instance, which is a pet peeve of mine), this was a drastically reduced Advent / Christmas season.
I spent five days in an Atlanta hospital following high risk spinal surgery and have been in an 8-13 week recovery period. We put up no Christmas tree and left the rest of the decorations in the attic. It was not a “bah, humbug” thing, we just ran out of time and ability. Although the Puritans would have been pleased, I missed all the trappings of Christmas.
For me there was also a palpable sadness this month as I came to the realization that my favorite pet, of all the pets I have ever owned, was terribly ill. I rescued Petey from a trip to the pound seventeen years ago and he has been my affectionate and faithful companion all those years.
I married a woman who loved cats, so we have always had at least one. But Petey was my cat. He meowed and patrolled the house looking for me when I was gone overnight, camped close to me when I was home, and often curled up on my lap to sleep.
He was a tiny kitten that had some Maine Coon genes from somewhere. At the height of his powers, he weighed 26 pounds. Two years ago, he got sick, and I thought I was going to lose him. But he bounced back after much care and not a little expense.
This time, he was down to eight pounds and, while not in obvious pain, he had multiple issues and had stopped eating days earlier. He was in my arms and purring as he received the shot that would let him go to sleep. I held him close and talked to him as the vet was giving him the second shot that would end his illness and begin my suffering
Late that afternoon, I dug the grave — which I know I shouldn’t have done because of my back … but this one last thing I could do for him — in the front yard and planted a rose bush over it after I had laid him down. I ordered a small pet marker which read “PETEY 2006-2023 ‘If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.’” It will arrive sometime after the first of the year.
Our two local sons and their families came by a day or two before Christmas and that was very enjoyable. On Christmas Eve morning, I joined in worship by watching our church’s Livestream service. On Christmas, we slept in. Around 4:00 p.m. my wife and I exchanged gifts and opened the gifts from family members. It was a quiet day and a restful one.
Certainly, I do not know what the next week — even much less the next year — will hold. It certainly will hold challenges, but it will also hold opportunities. The seasons are changing. In a couple of weeks, I will have another birthday. My 73rd as it turns out.
As I face this new season and whatever it brings, I have learned and experienced this truth: That while I have not always been faithful, God always has. And because He always has, I believe He always will.
May God’s blessings be upon you as you begin this new season of your life.
[David Epps is the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King (www.ctk.life). Worship services are on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and on livestream at www.ctk.life. He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South (www.midsouthdiocese.life). He may be contacted at davidepps@ctk.life.]
