(Enjoy this guest post from my good friend Marie Bixby as I set up a new site for my blog. Have a very Merry Christmas.)
As I was ‘catching up’ the two advent calendars we have hanging in our home, I was reminded that our traditions are changing. We no longer have little ones to fight over whose turn it is to flip over the next picture tile or pull the tiny handmade ornament out of its pocket and hang it on the quilted tree. As I stood there turning over the tiles for the days already past, I was taken back to a different place in time. Not only was I reminded of the days when our own children were small…. Ty as a shepherd in a Christmas production, Sam sliding down an icy hill in Idaho, Abby and Sarah sitting on Santa’s lap and Bekah hanging an ornament on the tree…..but this particular handmade calendar has small, black and white images of my own childhood as well as Jon’s.
One image that stirred my senses was of my great-aunt Ardie and me down on the floor in front of our Christmas tree peering into my brand new metal doll house!! I know, I know, the metal doll house dates me, but I’m ok with that. That particular image could easily sum up Christmases in the Southern house….lots of family, new toys, beautiful tree, a warm house full of traditions. And for us, it was the one time of the year we took Jesus out of His box and we celebrated His birth.
Nonetheless, my family was steeped in tradition. My mom was the consummate hostess and fabulous cook. She made our house inviting to all generations of my family. I hold dear those memories, and I am grateful for the traditions, some of which we have passed on to our own family. But the difference is this: since surrendering our lives to Jesus some 21 years ago, our house has been filled with not only the holiday's traditions of our past but also with our attempts to shine Jesus’ light throughout the year, punctuated by our efforts to keep the meaning of Christmas accurate and relevant for our children during the holidays.
The traditions we cherish, the memories we have, the triggers that take us back by way of our senses…taste, smell, sound, touch and sight… I believe, are all harbingers to what lies ahead for us in eternity. They are calling us to a place we haven’t yet seen. I like the way songwriter Terry Taylor said it in a book called “City on a Hill; Reflections on Our Spiritual Journeys.” He said this:
“Our longing for home is more than likely a desire for Home Eternal. The soul may indeed sigh for a thing lost…but only the spirit of God can fully know the true object of our deepest desire, and though these may come in the guise of Old Spice or fresh baked bread, they are nevertheless longings for God Himself.”
As Christians, we should be challenged to look for ways to show Christ to a hurting world, to become more outwardly focused, to be emptied, perhaps even humiliated, to a world that thinks Christmas is about a black Friday tied to the economy instead of about a birth that made way for the ultimate Black Friday: a day when your sins, my sins, the sins of the world were all at once on the shoulders of our beloved Savior. As we continue sojourning through yet another Christmas Season, let us be ever mindful of the work of Christ….remembering His humility, His sacrifice and the reason He was born while at the same time being grateful for the ways He cleverly and continually draws us to Himself and to our Home Eternal.
Until next time…Forever in Christ, Marie
