according to the tradition you received

Sharing this to the flock anon. Figured maybe the wider flock could use this reminder, too.

In July of 1996, my wife and I were married. That December, we celebrated our first Christmas together. Now because we were starting our lives with nothing, all we could afford that year was this tiny fake tree that looked like it had come from A Charlie Brown Christmas. My wife was teaching at the time and one of her students gave her this big, ugly Santa Claus head, our first ornament. That big, ugly Santa head began a tradition. Every year since then, my wife and I have bought a new ornament together. We try to choose one that represents something memorable about that year. In 2002, for instance, when my wife was pregnant with our son, we got an ornament that had two bears hanging Christmas decorations together – one of those bears being a pregnant mommy bear.

When our children were born, we added to this tradition. Each year, not only have my wife and I gotten an ornament for ourselves, but we’ve also gotten one ornament for each child. And just like the ornaments that we choose for each other, we try to choose ornaments that represent that child’s year. For instance, last year, my daughter liked Garfield. When we went to the Fair, she kept getting into line to give Garfield hugs, so we got her a Garfield ornament. This year, my son has a fixation on all things Batman – thus the crouching Batman now hanging on our tree. When the children are ready to start their own families many years from now, they will take their ornaments with them and hopefully build upon this tradition with their families.

For us, this ornament-collecting tradition represents the singular truth that Christmas is a celebration of the faithfulness and goodness of God to the world. Christmas is the celebration of a God who loved the world enough to place His own son in a manger. One of my favorite names for God in the Old Testament occurs when God refers to Himself as the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” That name represents the fact that He is a God who is good and faithful to us not just once, but year after year, and to generation after generation. Each year when my wife and I look upon our tree and see the ever-growing ornament collection, we are reminded of His love and goodness to us every year we have been married; we are reminded of the fact that He carried us through each of those years. When our children look upon their ornaments many years from now with their own families, it will be a testimony of God’s faithfulness to us, and to our children, and hopefully to our children’s children.