In our house we have a “rule” Christmas music can’t start until the day after Thanksgiving. So, we wait with growing anticipation for the first rock around the Christmas tree. The music of the season sets a joyous mood as we dance and sing-along we decorate the tree and the house.

As I put the ornaments on the tree I read, in mom’s handwriting, when we got each ornament–the red and green sailboat from 2008, the bulb with Mr and Mrs Clause kissing from 1977. Hit with nostalgia I was transported back to Crosby, ND and the feelings of warmth and closeness around Grandma’s tree. While Grandma is gone our family traditions connect us to the past and remind us who we are as we moving into the ever shifting future.

On the first Sunday of Advent at Peace Lutheran we are “Greening the Church,” bringing out all the decorations and traditions and telling about their histories and meanings. This worship has now become part of our family’s traditions. We join the Peace community and turn our faces toward Christmas. We look again at the hope that Jesus’ birth brings into the world. And we sing. As we sing we make real, in us and the world, the amazing love born in human flesh and born in us each day. It is like Martin Luther said, “As long as we live, there will never be enough singing.”