29 Days - Advent Reflections: Day 3

I did something last night that I do every year about this time.  I prepared Christmas cards to be sent to family members and friends.  62 that can use a Forever stamp and 2 that will go overseas.  It's a strange custom to be certain.  Strange given the fact that most all of the persons I am sending a card to are connected to my Facebook.  Anyone who follows my social media knows virtually everything that I've been involved with over the past year.  There isn't anything that I can tell them about what has happened that they don't already know.  But it isn't about that.

It's about a number of things that remind me of my own heritage - my own traditions.  My mom would tape all of the Christmas cards we received on a ribbon.  You could look at them and see who had sent a card - my aunt and uncle from Sandstone... my mom's cousin from Michigan... my dad's brother and his family.  Long before someone fashioned an internet that allows this experience to take place each day in view of millions of people, we were able to touch the lives of our families and friends in a tradition manner.  Everyone did it that way.  We didn't have any other method of making connections - especially during special times of the year like Christmas.

So, I send cards.  Granted I've missed a year or two here or there.  I've had to remove names and addresses as people from my past have entered the heavenly realm.  I've added a few new ones every year.  I try to write something personal in each one.  I know - I don't have enough time to do it.  

But it's Christmas.  Somehow, I'll find the time.  

I'll find the time because that's what you do with traditions... you make time for them.  They remind you of growing up.  They connect you with the innocence of youth.  They inspire you to remember them as you strive to shape your own family around them because you understand that somehow - they matter.  Traditions matter.

Paul says it like this "Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you." - 1 Corinthians 11:2.  I get it that Paul is talking about how he had taught new believers in the faith.  He is reminding them about all the things he taught them while he was with them.  I want to remember some of the important things my parents taught me while I was with them, because I perceive that there are no laws against such things.  They are good things to remember and to celebrate.

That's why I'll find the time to send a Christmas card.  I wonder, would you like to be on my card list?  Send me your address and I'll send you a Christmas card - it's part of my tradition.