More on Traditions

I have been pondering traditions for the last few days. Our family has quite a few traditions. Some are continuations from my childhood, some are from Shorty's side, and some we've developed on our own. =) I was thinking about why I enjoy our traditions so much. When I pull out the Christmas ornaments, I am reminded of fun Christmases past. When I set the table with my china on Saturday mornings, my thoughts travel back to the many Saturdays we've sat around sipping coffee & listening to books, or playing puzzles, or whatever. So traditions give us a link to our past. But they also give us hope for the future. My Crew look forward to Thanksgiving because I make pie. And on Black Friday we eat leftover pie and scrambled eggs for breakfast. And they can't wait! They start talking at lunch on Thanksgiving about which kind of pie they will have for breakfast the next morning!!! =) They know that they get to place their respective ornaments on the Christmas tree, and they look forward to it!

So, traditions are valuable because they link us to our past and give us something to look forward to in the future. But I have a tendency to unintentionally elevate our traditions to supreme status. There are times when we are unable to repeat certain traditions for one reason or another, and I find myself getting either angry or depressed. Obviously this is a sign of the sin of idolatry in my heart. But Jesus lived, never bowing His heart to idols, and died to pay for my continual idolatry. And so I am justified before my God. =) And I want my Crew to know that I WANT the gospel to be supreme in my life-- and theirs.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban"' (that is, given to God)-- then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."
Mark 7:1-13