A Tradition Touched by Grace

This past weekend my family and I made our annual pilgrimage to buy our Christmas tree. On the brief ride to “Jones Farm” we tried to remember if we had ever bought our tree anywhere else – oh, maybe once we had gone with a few other families and actually cut down a tree, but that was such a long time ago… “this” was our tradition. And as our tradition dictated, once again we laughed as our daughter was drawn to the largest tree on the lot … and once again we laughed as our son decided that tying Christmas trees to the roof of a car would not be a very “fun” job… again we reminisced about the day we bought our tree in a snow storm and had to let it dry in the garage… and we laughed as we remembered how every year we turn a ten minute car ride home into a twenty minute car ride because we worry that the tree will fall off the roof of our car… this year was no different!

As soon as we were home and the tree was wrestled into it’s stand, the decorating began. As my children untangled and tested the tree lights, I took an opportunity to log onto Facebook. My friend Diane had posted her status. She wrote, “Decorating our Christmas tree by myself again…” I laughed as I read her words, I could just picture that!…. I then rejoined my family as we strung the lights and the wooden cranberry strands, around and around the tree. “Why do we put these cranberries on our tree when they look so bad?”, “Because Dad and I bought those for our first tree”… and so it goes. .. stories told, and memories shared, year after year after year. Each ornament a story unto itself…. each with a history that we never seem to tire of hearing or telling… Ornaments bought on every family vacation… ornaments representing every sport our children have played, ornaments given to us from beloved family members. We have our “ugliest” ornament and our “tackiest” ornament. And then there’s the ornament that resembles a cookie…It was hand made by our daughter in a preschool class so many years ago and as it rested on the kitchen counter way back when - wouldn’t you know that dad tried to eat it…!

Later that evening, when the tree was all trimmed, I began thinking about my friend’s Facebook posting… It saddened me now as I thought of her trimming her tree all alone… And then I realized, how blind could I have been?? What had seemed to be just another typical Christmas tradition – and clearly one I had taken for granted – was actually a tremendous gift! A gift of spending time with my beloved family.

Oh but how quickly my feelings of gratitude started to blur as I took my eyes off God and His blessing and placed them sinfully on myself… I began wondering, “Oh my goodness, what if next Christmas I am the mom posting my dismay of having to decorate the Christmas tree all by myself?… what if my two teenagers decide that this is no longer their tradition??” Hadn’t I already noticed some distance growing between us? Hadn’t I noticed how much time they now spend behind closed doors in the their bedrooms and how our conversations are often reduced to “sound bites”??? These thoughts were flooding my mind with fear….

Thankfully our Lord and Savior did not leave me there…. God’s grace “stepped in” and reminded me of His Word that He shared with me only days before, “Don’t worry about missing out… Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthew 6 – The Message).

This blessed Christmas season may we spend less time worrying and being fearful about tomorrow. May we give more time to God and the people He has blessed us with. May we love with the love God gives us and be more grateful. And, may we worship fully the One Who makes all things possible.

Hilary Langille