There is a certain kind of madness in cranking down the A/C just to justify a fire in the hearth. But we don’t do it for the warmth; we do it because we are one generation away from losing the thread.
It’s that time of year in Houston when logic gives way to an idealized version of the Christmas season.
My wife and I stepped outside last night and were greeted by a scent that was wonderful but completely out of place: wood smoke. Someone nearby decided the calendar said “winter,” so by golly, it was going to be winter.
The Air-Conditioned Fire
It took me back many years to when we still had a fireplace. I remember watching a picture-perfect fire crackle while the room turned into a sauna because it was barely 55 degrees outside. Naturally, I did what any reasonable Houstonian would do: I walked over and cranked down the A/C.
I was burning store-bought wood to heat the room while paying for electricity to cool it down. It was ridiculous, but I was determined to manufacture a “cozy” winter night.
Geological Artifacts
I realize now that my dad did something similar. Born in 1918, he grew up poor, but every December he’d stock the house with apples and oranges, walnuts, and nostalgic hard candies. To my brothers and me, accustomed to M&Ms, that cut rock candy looked like a geological artifact. It was hard, garish, and some of it had a very odd taste (but we ate it anyway).
But to Dad, that was Christmas. He was recreating the only extravagance he’d known as a boy.
Now, I find myself dusting off old traditions for my grandsons, trying to recapture the magic of the past, holding onto rituals that probably seem just as odd to them as that rock candy did to me.
One Generation Away
I believe God designed us to need these physical reminders because He knows how easily we forget. Moses warned the Israelites not to forget God when they got comfortable in the Promised Land. Jesus gave us the bread and the cup of communion specifically “in remembrance of Me.”
If we work this hard to preserve a holiday mood, how much more must we work to preserve the eternal? We have a responsibility to explain the reason for our hope to the next generation. We are only one generation away from breaking the thread of faith that holds us together.
My neighbors don’t light fires in mild weather because they need heat. We do it because we need the connection. We are trying to warm up the present with the truth of our past.
