(Photo credit: My 5 year old)
Shortly before I came down with the Thanksgiving bug (I’m much better now, whew!) I brought up all the holiday books from our lower level. That sounds like a straightforward, ten-minute task, doesn’t it? Naturally, it snowballed into a week-long, FEMA-level cleanup effort. Okay, sure, I never should have let our family room devolve into a certified disaster area in the first place. But, gee, I’m proud of myself now. The girls can actually play down there.
So the bulk of our Christmas books are now stacked in our living room book bin for easy access. My four year old brought me a few the other day and we cuddled on the couch as I read them to her. Snowmen danced, reindeer flew, and nimble-fingered elves assembled fleets of toys for all the good little girls and boys.
We’re not opposed to the secular trappings of Christmas, but as I closed the last book, I needed to ask my daughter a question. “Sweetheart, why do we have Christmas?”
She looked at me blankly.
“What I mean is, whose birthday are we celebrating on Christmas?”
“Umm…” she thought a moment, then her face brightened. She shouted her cousin’s name, who recently held her eighth birthday party at a ceramic studio. Getting to choose and paint their own pieces of pottery had made a big impression on my two oldest.
(My two year old did not join us for the event, so as to avoid a FEMA disaster in a place where it really would have cost us.)
“No, we already had her birthday. Whose birthday is on Christmas?” Again she furrowed her brow. Aha! This time she had it for sure. “Daddy’s!”
“Well, we just celebrated Daddy’s birthday, too.”
“Whose birthday is still coming?” I asked. My daughter shifted restlessly. She was out of guesses. “It’s Jesus’ birthday!” I answered for her.
Hadn’t we gone over this extensively last holiday season? Certainly we had.
And didn’t my husband just recently reread them the Christmas story for their bedtime devotion? Yes, he did.
But should I be surprised that the lesson needs repeating?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. –Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (HCSB)
Other translations instruct us: “Impress them on your children,” and “teach them diligently to your children.”
Teach these words diligently. Impress them on those under your care. Repeat them. Repeat them. Repeat them.
Telling, and retelling, and retelling again is exactly what our children need. And when you come right down to it, exactly what we need, too.
We need it especially during the holiday season, when we fly from one family gathering to another, clean frantically, and get caught up in 1 a.m. Amazon searches to score the perfect toys.
We forget that “holiday season” really means “a time of holy days.”
Now is the time to celebrate the Holy One. He came to live a holy, perfect life in our place. He died to pay for our unholiness. And He will come again.
Repeat these words to your children. Repeat these words to yourself. May they be on your heart throughout the busyness of these brief, bright days we rightfully call holy.
