"That Is NOT How It Goes!"

To follow up on my rant of the last couple of days about the truthfulness of what we teach our children about the Christmas story, I’m reminded of a true story in our family. (Watch out when a preacher tells you that. You’re in for a long one!)

When my oldest daughter Michelle – now a recent graduate with her “doctor of pharmacy” degree from Texas Tech! – was a little child, on Christmas Eve it was our tradition to go home from church and get out the nativity set Susan’s cousin, Grace, had made her right after we were married, and tell the Christmas story. Because Michelle was so young, I told sort of the “Reader’s Digest–formulated for a 2-3 year old” version of the story. As I told the story, Susan and Michelle would act out the part for each of the nativity roles as they placed that part in the nativity scene. Michelle always did this with great fanfare, ascribing all the dialogue suitable to being a shepherd, or sheep, or cow, etc.

As I said, for the first couple of years of her life, we told a child’s version of the story. But one year, when Michelle was probably 5 or 6 years old, I decided that she was old enough now to hear the REAL story read from the Bible. So as we gathered for the story – which by now was a genuine, bona fide Johnson family Christmas tradition – I read from the Christmas story from the BIBLE. After reading from Luke and closing the Bible to watch what always came next, Michelle looked at me disapprovingly. She was not pleased. Something was different. The words were new. The concepts were strange. With the all the sincerity of a child she scolded me by saying, “Daddy, that is NOT how it goes!!”

I guess that was when I first began to notice the importance of traditions to our celebration of Christmas. Whatever is old, whatever is familiar, whatever is “what we’ve always done,” whatever feels comfortable and traditional becomes more important than what the Bible really says. Whether we’re 5 or 50.