Last summer while I was hanging clean clothes out on the clothesline to dry in the sunshine and breeze, I was thinking about how my mom and grandmothers used to do this task at their homes. Similarly, as we canned food this summer, I remembered back to watching (and sometimes helping) my mom and grandmother can. In my family these are just a couple of the summer activities that have been handed down from generation to generation.
As our children have grown we have developed some December/Advent/Christmas traditions. My kids have made an annual gingerbread house with a dear “adopted grandma.” For several years we attended one of the [cold!] Christmas parades in the area, and we still attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service. We enjoy rereading certain books each year (I’m writing a post on those books so stay tuned!), and the movies “Holiday Inn,” “White Christmas,” and “Elf,” seem to have plenty of screen time at our house. Who knows which of these traditions will be handed down to our children’s children?
These are generally fun things that can help enhance this season. I believe there are also non-negotiables of the season, especially the Christmas story and the call to intentionally focus not on all the worldly things but on Jesus’s birth. I believe there are certain things God very much wants handed down generation to generation to generation. This is why Moses taught the Israelites to tell their children – intentionally and repeatedly – about God’s commandments, love, mercy, and blessings. They were told to do this so they “didn’t forget how they got there.”
“Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates…When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, 11 MSG).
The Apostle Paul, too, tells us to intentionally and repeatedly take the Lord’s Supper so that we remember what Jesus did for us.
“The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me.” After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: “This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me.” What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns” (1 Corinthians 11:24-26 MSG).
Sometimes traditions handed down to us generation to generation are empty of spiritual meaning – but full of fun! – and sometimes they are critical to the continuity of our lives and the handing down of our faith to our children and grandchildren. Today I invite you to celebrate the fun and Christ-centered traditions of this season AND to remember God’s call to hand our faith down to our (spiritual and physical) children and grandchildren.
God,
Thank you for fun, for meaningful traditions, for beauty, and for this season where we remember you left your glory in heaven to become Emmanuel and live life with us. Thank you for the opportunity each time we take communion to remember your gift to us on the cross and at the empty tomb, and to celebrate our spiritual freedom because you have redeemed us from sin and death. As we walk through these weeks, help us to remember your Story and to share it with our spiritual children and grandchildren so they will continue to pass it down generation to generation until your return. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.
“This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives. Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.
Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!
Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you’re going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn’t build, well-furnished houses you didn’t buy, come upon wells you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn’t plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don’t forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God’s sight so you’ll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said” (Deuteronomy 6:1-19 MSG).