Mind the Memories

Every year during the Christmas season, I have a good cry.  I love Christmas! It’s my favorite holiday! A joyful time of giving and celebrating! So why does that big ugly cry creep up on me with no warning?

It’s a happy sad cry triggered by some memory of a Christmas past. When I wasn’t the oldest generation. When Mom was still the creator of all things Christmasy.

There are the early memories of her homemade Christmas gifts. Once she made a bed for my new doll out of a shoebox. Another Christmas she sewed a red coat for my old gold teddy bear so it came back to life as Winnie the Pooh. Later for my children, she appliqued aprons and made teddy bears made out of family heirloom quilts.

There are memories of her Christmas decorations. A white flocked tree with light pink balls that we had when I was four or five. The slender fir with elegant gold and sparkling crystal ornaments I returned home to in my thirties.  Every room had a touch of Christmas inspired by Southern Living magazine. On our mantel still hangs four special stockings that she gussied up.

And there are the food memories.  She started baking weeks ahead, putting goodies away in the freezer.  We always arrived to a spread of fudge, cookies, candies and pies on the buffet atop an old treadle sewing machine base.

So now every Christmas I’m careful to “mind the memories,” paying close attention to them. Holding them close, even when they hurt. They connect the past with our present. They even connect the past with the future when we share the memories and traditions with the next generations.

But there are no Christmas memories greater than the ones Mary had after the shepherds visited her new little baby. Luke 2:18-19 [ESV] – And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary, how I treasure and ponder with you!  What a wonder! God Himself wiggled through the humanness of an embryo in a teenager’s womb. He experienced the full spectrum of being 100% human while being completely God. Not so He could show us how to be a perfect man. But rather to become the last lamb sacrificed to remove the sins of humanity.

Hebrews 7:26-27 [ESV] For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

My sins. Your sins. Once and for all. Wow! That’s a Christmas memory to mind! I’m paying close attention. Treasuring and pondering. Having a good cry.