Looking backward and forward

I am reading a book that I LOVE! It's called "Treasuring God in our Traditions". I just wanted to share a little thought that I read from it today:

"Memory is the mother of all traditions. Almost all of our special days are celebrated because they remind us of something significant in the past. A birthday looks back to a birth. An anniversary looks back to a wedding. A funeral looks back on a life. Christmas looks back at Jesus' birth and Easter looks back on His death and resurrection. Our celebrations are occasions to look back and remember what God has done in the world and in our lives.


At the same time we are also looking forward. The preparations we make and the eagerness we feel as we look ahead toward a special day are a foretaste of he emotions we will experience when we encounter God in a special way as we celebrate. And that encounter with God is, in turn, a foreshadowing of the great day when we will see Him face to face.


...How would a birthday celebration change if we looked at our birthday person and imagined God's hands knitting him or her together, if we thought of his or her unabridged story written in God's book, if we remember that this day was chosen by God specifically for this person? Ours is only a pale reflection of God's love, but it is one of the means God uses to point our child toward himself.



Tradition -1 a : an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom) b : a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable 2 : the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction 3 : cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions