12 Days of Traditions...Day 9

I was out grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, and as I often do while perusing the aisles, I was having a little talk with God. I don't know what it is about grocery stores, but I've found that it's often during that "alone time" that God addresses various issues in my heart.

Yesterday it was this whole topic of traditions I've been running in recent days. Don't get me wrong---traditions are great! Traditions are a means through which we get pass God's Truth on to the next generation. We create security and familiarity as we do the same things the same way year after year.

But my heart stopped yesterday as God reminded me that for some, there is nothing this year that is the same as last year. There's no "normal" or "usual." Everything has changed. Perhaps it's due to a move. Perhaps it's due to the loss of a loved one. The traditions of old don't look the same this year. There's the struggle to find...to embrace...a new normal. There's the challenge to establish and implement new traditions.

I'm one who's not real keen on change (my friends and family are laughing here). I've been mindful that our oldest son is only 4 1/2 years away from graduating. I've been thinking about the changes that will bring (I like to plan ahead). Our family will eventually expand. We'll welcome new family members. One or more of our boys may spend Christmas elsewhere, leaving an empty seat around our Christmas Eve dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu.

But God gently reminded me that traditions are not only what we celebrate at holidays and other special days throughout the year. Traditions are an ongoing, day by day reflection of our Treasure. Traditions are storing God's words up in our heart so that we can share them with the next generation. Tradition is a parent who consistently calls out to God. It's a parent who hopes in Him even when circumstances are painful. Tradition is a parent who looks for opportunities to share with her children what God is doing in her heart; who points to God's Hand in all of creation. Tradition is remembering God's faithfulness and knowing that, likewise, He will be faithful now and in the future. This is tradition. This is the "passing of the baton." This is telling the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.

As seasons come and seasons go, some traditions will change. Some traditions will begin. But our God will not change. And it's Him we honor and lift up through our traditions...not the tradition itself.

"May God give us eyes to see Him, hearts to love Him,

and a passion to show Him to our children." ~ Noel Piper