Holidays abound with traditions, and Christmas, I think overflows with such customs. We have Christmas parades to kick off the season, visits with Santa Claus to motivate good behavior in the children, school holiday concerts, and nativity plays at church. We put up Christmas trees - though they may vary in size and we may debate the merits of real versus artificial. We sing Christmas carols, string up Christmas lights, drink egg nog and craft gingerbread houses. Within our families we have even yet more specific Christmas traditions that we pass down from generation to generation -- reading The Night Before Christmas, making sure we always have that one dish of great-grandma's that the holiday meal wouldn't be complete without, the family rules for gift opening....
In my family my favorite tradition involves ornaments. Each year, my grandmother used to purchase or make ornaments for each member of the family. Each ornament was specifically selected for the recipient to reflect something about that person that year -- their favorite movie, starring in the school play, learning a new musical instrument... A new ornament with a new memory attached to be added the following year when we gathered to trim the tree. Some years with special milestones multiple ornaments were received until the time arrived when I moved out and set up my own tree in my own home for the first time and thanks to those yearly ornaments had enough to style that tree with all those memories.
My collection began when I was six months old with a bright and colorful clown. It's not the most attractive of ornaments and is not something I would ever choose for myself now, and yet that clown continues to hold a place of honor on my tree every year to this day. It commemorates my first Christmas true, but it also holds a lifetime full of Christmas memories. Bickering with my brother when we were younger about whose ornaments would go where on the tree. Sitting by the tree with my brother and hypothesizing about what surprises were within the wrapped packages underneath it, daring each other to shake a gift without getting caught by our mother who seemed to have the specific location of each gift memorized and if one was an inch out of place would inquire "Which one of you has been touching these presents?" Decorating my first shabby, Charlie-Brown-style tree in a little campus apartment. Telling the story of the clown ornament to my toddler son for the first time and explaining why we now as a family go buy a new ornament for each member of our little family each year.
Remembering what has gone before is a habit God wants us to have. He doesn't want us to remember and hold on to past sins or hurts, but He does want us to remember all He has done for us. Psalm 105:5 says "Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles and the judgments He pronounced" and Deuteronomy 8:2 says "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way." We are to remember the ways He has blessed us -- our jobs, our homes, our friends and family members, holiday celebrations throughout the years. We are also to remember the difficult times -- financial struggles, broken and lost relationships, illnesses -- and how God led us through those times so that when trouble comes we can rest assured He will bring us through once again.
We are also to share those memories with future generations so that they too can learn from what has happened before. "When your son asks you in time to come, saying 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'" (Deuteronomy 6:20-23) We, like the Israelites, were brought out of slavery...slavery to sin. The Lord our God showed us great signs and wonders by the birth of a precious boy in a manger in Bethlehem to a young virgin woman and the many miracles that boy later did as a man. He brought us out of the slavery to our sin through the death of that man on a cross and His resurrection three days later, and through that sacrifice of grace, He brought us in to be called His beloved sons and daughters. We need to be ready to share the memories and testimonies of our own deliverance with our children and grandchildren, and we need to help them create their own touchstones... a not so attractive clown, a cuddly baby snowangel, a Bible, a journal, a special song...so that they, too, can remember for themselves "the wonders He has done."
* Pine cone photo by Craig Bell
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