Are you excited? It is Christmas Eve at last! Time to laugh around the table and open gifts by the tree. Are you in your own home or away visiting family? Here’s the last in this series on “Parenting Jesus.”
Over the past weeks, we have looked at many aspects of how Mary and Joseph parented Jesus. Mary sought God’s guidance in scripture as she prepared for Jesus’ birth. Joseph took God’s warnings about Herod seriously, acting on them at enormous personal sacrifice. Together he and Mary dedicated their son at the Temple and followed through by taking him regularly to the synagogue and Temple. Mary passed on stories of God’s amazing power. She modeled compassion. She taught her son to pray. She believed in him when everyone else turned away.
We began this series in Deuteronomy 4:9, with God’s command to remember all God has done and to pass those stories on to our children and grandchildren. We’ll close by returning to the same portion of scripture. In Deuteronomy 6:6,7, we read, “Commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up.”
Don’t forget to celebrate this Christmas by giving those you love the most important gift of all: the knowledge of a God who is forever with us. Merry Christmas indeed!
