“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.” Exodus 23:14

Traditions and ceremony are God’s idea—not man’s. He gave Israel certain celebrations to observe for a reason. These holy day traditions provide a concrete, meaningful way to preserve the truth and wonder of God’s story of love and grace for all generations. Knowing how prone we are to forget, God prescribed tangible, recurring reminders of who we are, who He is, and what He has done for us.

I love the film and stage play, Fiddler On The Roof. The main character in the story, Tevye, struggles to keep his balance on that precarious perch between preserving long-established traditions that have provided stability and identity for generations, and adapting to a changing world that challenges those traditions, even in his own family. His simple credo that says “without traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof” is suddenly shaken. Tevye is forced to wrestle with what should be changed and where the line between change and tradition must be drawn to keep from losing his balance.

I wonder, how many even wrestle with such critical questions today?

Iconoclastic attitudes that view traditions through suspicious lenses are not uncommon today. Some of these may be justifiable reactions to rigid and irrelevant traditions. On the other hand, too many times such attitudes irresponsibly throw the baby out with the bath water. In so doing, whole generations grow up confused about who they are and their part in the greater story. Deprived of meaningful tradition, substantive ties to their past and life-giving connections to their future are lost. Individualism replaces community as the source of identity and value.

Traditions and their accompanying ceremonies help us look beyond ourselves. The serendipitous experiences involved in meaningful traditions, especially when rooted in God’s Word, help us remember the truth about who we are, who God is, and why we are here. The ceremonies we share act like a compass to point us toward Life and the Giver of Life. Like Tevye, we will and must struggle to keep our balance by embracing those traditions that tell the story well, while letting go of those things that don’t. May God grant us the wisdom to know the difference!

As grandparents, we are responsible to be keepers of the story. One way we do that is by preserving meaningful, relevant traditions that pass the story from generation to generation with power and purpose. The traditions we establish during Advent and Christmas ought to help our families distinguish between the myth and the truth, and embrace the truth. Our purpose is not keep traditions for the sake of traditions, but to preserve those traditions that help us remember HIS STORY, and our part in that story. God takes this responsibility very seriously – and so should we.

GRANDPAUSE: A strong heritage doesn’t just happen. It can only be created by having a plan, and with intentional effort. -Otis Ledbetter

 Give your input…

[I’d like to know about some of the traditions that you keep in your family or church that keep the story alive from generation to generation. Write to me and share some of your traditions so that others can also benefit from your experiences. It’s never too late to start new traditions, but tell me what you are doing now to preserve the truth about Christmas for all. What has worked for you? How are you encouraging the next generations to carry on the tradition? Write to me today.]