It was wonderful to have our kids home for Thanksgiving break.  Our quiet house was once again bustling with activity and merriment as we celebrated the long weekend together. Much like she did during her childhood, our youngest was asking daily if we could put up the Christmas tree and the accompanying decorations. Much like years earlier, I responded to her incessant requests with a smirking obtuseness. Near the end of the break, I finally relented to her petitions for festive expression and I left for work.  

When I returned home at lunch, the house had been transformed.  I examined the tree in all of its glory.  It was a menagerie of ornaments that had been both created and acquired over the years, but several of them I had no recollection of. In particular, was a glass whale ornament. I inquired of my wife as to its origin but she was at a loss as well.  We both assumed it had been purchased or gifted as a reminder of a vacation to the ocean at some point. Because I had not regularly rehearsed its special nature nor shared it with my family, its meaning and significance had been lost and forgotten. 

It got me wondering, how many items or traditions in our church are like that mysterious whale ornament?  How many are observed but not understood? 
How will the next generation know if we do not share?
One of the beautiful things about the Jewish faith is the instruction to teach the next generation the things of God. The entire book of Deuteronomy is a retelling of the law of Moses and the deeds of God. 

Deuteronomy 6:1-7 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  ESV

As we enter Advent, I encourage you to take time this year to make some efforts to explain the whys behind so many of the things we do.  Those relational connections are invaluable to the continuation of the faith.

Loving you all, 
Michael