Column: Hold onto Christmas story when coping with post-holiday blues

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

I am depressed. The depression did not sneak up on me. In fact, I planned to be depressed. Christmas is now gone by two days. I planned to be depressed when it left.
I do not mean I planned to be depressed as if I was looking forward to it. Rather I was, at some level, expecting it like a seasonal flu that makes its way around every year. I knew that it was coming. It comes in some way every year.
Although I may be the only one confessing, I am certain that I am not alone. The days after Christmas are historically dark days for many people. Decorations begin to come down, destined for another year of burial in storage. Trees that once stood beautifully decorated in living rooms lie like green skeletons on the side of the road, with tinseled sinews hanging from their limbs. Beside them are black plastic body bags stuffed with what once was colorful wrapping paper and boxes. Those are the external signs of a dying Christmas, but the internal ones cause the most pain.
In general, we have too high expectations for the season. No holiday can live up to all we expect from Christmas. The passing of the day simply reminds us of that reality. However, the “post-Christmas blues” is not all in our heads. Christmas is not immune to sadness and loss; sometimes it seems to invite them.
When the phone rang early, I was afraid it would not be good news. I was correct; a friend’s mother had died. My first thought was for her family and their loss. My second thought was the timing. Everyone would be in the funeral home at Christmas. Another friend put in words what I was willing only to think, “Why do things like this have to happen at Christmas?”
Although we ask it, the question is a ridiculous one. There is nothing magical about Dec. 25. The date and the season are not off limits to sickness, accidents or even death. In fact, statistics show that there is a slight increase in crime during the season of peace. In Dallas, Texas, someone has been shooting motorists during this holiday.
To ward off my seasonal depression, I try to remember that the first Christmas was not all carols and kindness. After the birth of Jesus, Matthew tells us that Herod the Great ordered the slaughter of all the two-year-olds in the region of Bethlehem. In that genocide, the old tyrant attempted to take the life of the one born to be king, thus protecting his throne. Although it failed, Herod’s murderous act placed sadness beside Christmas forever. As Matthew put it, “Rachael weeping for her children; she refuses to be consoled.” Rachael still weeps for her children, her parents, her siblings, and any other loss that comes with the season. Many of us join her in that grief. We may not like it, but sadness is no stranger to Christmas.
I also take some encouragement from the story of Christmas. Herod injected sadness into the story, but he did not wipe out the story. He did great damage and caused immeasurable grief, but he did not thwart the plan of God. Jesus lived. I try to remember that when the sadness creeps in and around me. Christmas comes and goes but Jesus stayed. When after 30 some odd years the world became weary of him, he found a way to stay. Frustrated by his healing the sick, raising the dead, by his insistence on preaching the good news to those who need it most, we sent him packing on a cross. Then he told those who loved him best, “I will be with you to the end.” Each year when time says, “Christmas has left the building,” I try to remember that Jesus has not.

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/.