Traditions

The older I get, the more sentimental I get in thinking about holidays and getting the family together. I just love it, and couldn't think of not having these special days. After living overseas for 10 years, and missing many family get-togethers, I find any excuse I can to be with my extended family.

At certain times of the year, I can’t stop my mind—it harkens back to times gone by. I recall the noise and confusion of family gatherings, the smells of dinner wafting through the house, and mom standing before the stove or busily setting the table; the loud and animated discussions around the dinner table as 3 boys and 1 girl tried to outtalk each other; grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins over for an afternoon visit… Don’t you have memories like that? And don’t they bring a smile to our face and a longing in our heart. That is what traditions do for us—help us balance the difficulties and trials and drudgery and routine of today with the joys and memories and victories of yesterday. They are sweet medicine to our heart. We all need traditions in our lives.

Did you ever wonder about the shepherds-- did they ever get together at times to recount "the glory of the Lord that shone round about them" while they sleepily tended sheep? Did the 10 lepers hold a reunion each year to remember in grattitude the day the saviour touched and healed them? I'll bet in later years, their minds often recalled those days of their past, those days where God broke in to the routine or the pain of their lives.

David oftened experienced the present healing of the Lord as he reflected on God's past activity in his life: "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. " (Ps 143:5 ) Traditions indeed have a healing power.