December is nearly upon us, and Christmas will come in the jingle of a bell. It is a time of memory-making and memory-recalling. In my household, it is a time to watch home videos. We will replay the wonderful glimpses of history we have captured on film from the time our family was begun. Most modern families will use a phone or other device to capture lasting snapshots of their holiday celebrations this year. They will most likely recall days of old and make resolutions for days ahead. It is also a time of wonder. The bright lights, glittering snow, cheery carols, and cozy familial gatherings all induce feelings of awe. And these are the just the accoutrements. They don’t mention the wonderful concept of a fat guy coming down your chimney, or the most awe-inspiring truth of God become baby. There is plenty to be amazed at around Christmas time. Let it stand as the time where we adults reclaim our parental duty of wonder.
Before Christmas was a holiday, it was a due date for a young Middle-Eastern Girl. This girl was without iPhone, video camera, or even projected home videos. What she did have was a heart, and Luke records in his gospel her capacity to “keep up” and “treasure” the memories of her son, not in a digital file, but in her heart. After his birth and the shepherd visit, and later after she nearly loses the twelve-year-old Son of God in Jerusalem, Luke takes the precious time to tell us how this marvelous mother filed these things away in the storehouse of her heart. (Luke 2:19,51) Once filed away, these memories did not gather dust either. Luke writes of how she “pondered” (Luke 2:19) these things, and how she and Joseph were “amazed,” and “in awe,” how they “wondered about” the things which were said about their son. (Luke 2:33)
Jesus of Nazareth had parents who treasured up and stewarded well the memories of his life. His is the one name by which men must be saved, and I am convinced his parents were the only ones by whom he could be raised. Jesus is the eternal Word of God, but He became flesh and became a real boy, with a normal human brain, and normal earthly memories with which to direct His life course. Mary and Joseph used their memory-keeping and pondering capacities to guide him in the way He should go, and He did not depart from it (See Proverbs 22:6). It was this rich well of Jesus-inspired wonder which qualified this mother to dictate when Jesus would start his public ministry. Thirty years after his birth, Mary and Jesus found themselves at a wedding in Cana. The party ran out of wine. Jesus did not think this His problem. Mary knew better. “Whatever he says to you, do it,” she told the servants (John 2:5). Jesus gave them instruction, water turned into wine, and the open ministry of Jesus of Nazareth turning Jesus the Christ was begun. It was begun on the word of a mother who had spent three decades silently pondering her boy.
Like Mary and Joseph, it is the responsibility of every parent to train up their children in the way each unique individual should go. The quiet, intentional, and time-consuming labors necessary to keep, treasure, ponder, and wonder at our children as they unfold before us is the essential gift we must give our kids for Christmas this year. I do well to ponder what I might give my son Eli for a gift this Christmas season. I do even better to review the constantly flowing tape of his life, to store up important scenes on a daily basis, and allow myself to be amazed by the beauty of this once baby—now boy—becoming man. As I do, I give him the gift of a parental advocate who has dedicated decades of my life to treasuring him. I will inevitably give him better Christmas presents as well. Let us all follow the lead of the “holy family” as we allow the wonder of the season to overflow in awe at the greatest gifts we’ve been given this Christmas: our children.
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