Storing the Christmas Decorations

There is a melancholic air in the house as we take down and store away the Christmas decorations. The festive forms and colors will now be hid in boxes in the dark storage spaces until, God willing, another Christmas season. I always enjoy the return of the house to its normal appearance as we have a somewhat modest but most pleasant arrangement. Additionally, with the daylight hours beginning to lengthen noticeably, the large front window, now without the Christmas tree, admits much light from the westering winter sun. I know as well that the pleasure in the Christmas decorations stirs in part because they are seasonal. Were they in place the year round I suspect we would take less manifest pleasure in them. Yet the melancholy does seep into the changes as we return to the ordinary. In this I cannot help but call to mind and grasp in heart and spirit that it is for the very ordinary that Jesus came in love so low.