Ninja-Style Celebrations

In this day of helicopter parents and boomerang kids, it’s clear we have forgotten both how to hand off the baton to the next generation and how to maintain a healthy intergenerational involvement in each other’s lives as our children reach adulthood. What’s a mother (or father) to do?!

Providentially, God has been here before us, giving us patterns for raising and releasing powerful young people into the world. When Israel was a tiny-tot nation taking his first steps toward freedom, God gathered this son to Mt Sinai and gave him two wonderful gifts: boundaries and celebrations. The Law and the festival calendar.

On the celebration side, God was building into his son a leveraged call to homesickness. We all recognize the power of the holidays to make us long for the familiar things, the good old days and family times. But the way God built them, holiday celebrations were leveraged to produce maximum desire for home and His ways.

How? Each celebration He crafted was more than turkey and football. His celebrations were highly creative remembrances of specific instances of His goodness to His son – especially in bad times. The food, the decorations, the activities and stories, sometimes even what they wore all spoke of some aspect of the adventure commemorated. (This is ninja-style celebration; everything is your weapon!) Just take a look; it certainly adds spice to your reading of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

We ought to be in the business of imitating Christ at every turn. Can we build calls to homesickness into our family life? Naturally! As the holidays approach, consider how to tie your activities and traditions to the blessings God poured out on us in sending His Son. Your celebration will then tie your family closer to God, and it will become a season of delight unique to your family. As your children push out into the wild world, where will they find such a celebration of the good things of God? Only at your house!

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Launch-proof your family this Christmas! Try Kim’s Magi Treasure Hunt: a Christmas Bible Study Game. It’s a celebration starter sure to become a favorite tradition.

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