Tradition

Tradition – There is a tradition that is not worn out and tired. There is a ritual that has not grown old and out of date. There is a sacrament that still stirs the heart of those who partake of it and touches the soul of those who draw near.

It is not the magic that has gone out of the rite, but the heart that has grown old in the celebrant. Our sin has not grown less, oh, certainly not. Nor has God’s grace flagged and diminished. We have just grown accustomed to the whole lot of it.

There was a time, when you were much younger, that you used to go outside and marvel at the stars. You wondered how far away they were. You tired to make out the constellations that the ancients saw. You looked at the full moon and saw the man in it. Somewhere along the way the wonder passed out of life for many of us. That is how we know we have grown old.

Growing old can happen at any age. My grandfather never grew old. There was a movie, yes, an actual movie, of him driving up on the tractor beside the Wisconsin farm house in which he and my grandmother lived. In the movie there is snow on the ground as Grandpa hops down from the tractor and proceeds to unload the firewood from the trailer he is pulling. He throws it through a small door into the basement where he would later have to go and stack it neatly to fuel the furnace.

When we spent parts of our summers there the four grandkids would ask to watch the movies. Grandpa would play through all sorts of them, Christmases past, weddings, birthdays, on and on they would go. He knew the one we were waiting for, the one with the tractor and the firewood. That one was our favorite. Not because of the snow, after all, it’s Wisconsin, snow is measured in feet, not inches. Not because of the tractor, it was a farm. The tractor was standard issue with a farm. No, it was our favorite because it was a movie, a real movie, not a video tape of DVD. A movie, you can run backwards!

The logs would fly out from under the house. Each one caught by my grandfather and placed back on the wagon. Then the greatest feat of all! Grandpa would effortlessly hope all the way back up in the tractor seat as if he were a hot balloon! The thing is, I think Grandpa liked that movie every bit as much as we did.

Somewhere that movie as stored. It has been many years since I have seen it. My parents talked about getting them all put on tapes, and then, later, DVD’s. But, no one ever has. I think that is because it wouldn’t be the same. You see, the movie is just an old man unloading firewood, but run it backwards, and it’s Grandpa.

Spring has come when all things become reborn. Easter is coming. Let Christ refresh you through His new life, and let wonder again be a part of your life.

Pastor Craig