Thursday, July 18, 2024

What’s Your Family Christmas History & Traditions?

Psalm 85:8-9

8          Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

                        for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;

                        but let them not turn back to folly.

9          Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,

                        that glory may dwell in our land.

   Do you have family traditions during the Christmas season? What are some of those traditions? Where did they originate? How did they become a tradition, and why do you still carry them out today?

    Family traditions are important because they anchor a person in his or her family history. It’s a way of not only celebrating Christmas (or any other holiday such as Thanksgiving), but more importantly it anchors the present with the past.

   For most people Christmas is anchored in pleasant memories and histories. As a child I remember heading to church for Christmas Eve services. The next morning, we were up and at ‘em for Christmas Day service. After service we traveled “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s and grandfather’s house we go” in Mishicot, WI. Mishicot is a very small rural village about an hour from my hometown of Sheboygan. There we would enjoy all the quaintness that came with a rural Wisconsin village.

   Christmas dinner was always held at Aunt Ethel and Uncle Buster’s house. The cousins were there along with Grandma and Grandpa. Dinner was always wonderful and there was never a shortage of homemade kolaches.

   For many people, however, Christmas memories and traditions are not so pleasant. Memories are anchored in divorce, constant bickering and fighting between Mom and Dad. Some people’s Christmas memories are anchored in abandonment or abuse, and there are a whole host of other Christmas memories and histories that some would just as soon forget, nevertheless, they cannot. Their family pasts have shaped their present.

   As a Christian, God draws you into a different history, a different family history filled with all kinds of traditions. The family history of God’s people is filled with joy and praise, sin and suffering, pain and sorrow. However, God’s family history is filled with God—His promises made and kept, His Emmanuel (which means “God with us”). He never abandons His family. He never leaves you high and dry. He’s always there when “you don’t need Him,” and He’s always always always there when you do.

   The wonderful Christmas hymn It Came Upon the Midnight Clears expresses this in song:

All you, beneath your heavy load,
    By care and guilt bent low,
Who toil along a dreary way
    With painful steps and slow:
Look up, for golden is the hour,
    Come swiftly on the wing,
The Prince was born to bring you peace;
    Of Him the angels sing.

   The Christian is anchored in the history of Christmas, the birth of a Child, the death of a Son, the resurrection of the Deliverer, and the promise that He’s returning again.

   The Christian is anchored in Baptism whereby God’s grace and mercy, He turns sinners into saints. The beauty and wonder of this tradition, however, is not only that you are anchored in the past, but more wonderfully God brings the past into your present. The Christ child’s history is not simply in the past buried in dust. The Christ child’s history is present and active your life today. You’re not simply a child of God on Christmas. You are a child of God everyday living out God’s grace and mercy on a daily basis. What better Christmas Gift could you receive?

   Celebrate your Christmas history each and every day, for every day is Christmas for the Christian!