Memory Keeper, Memory Maker or both?

This past weekend I did a little "time traveling" and didn't even have to leave home.   Even though  it was "rushing the season" a little, we decided to travel up to the attic and unpack Christmas.  I try to set aside a block of a couple of days to get everything displayed to my liking.  This year, it didn't seem possible to get that much time in one block so I hurriedly set out on my "tasks".  I started out by unpacking the Christmas tree ornaments.  As I unpacked the first few ornaments, they were trendy and new,  and my chore went by pretty mindlessly.  Then, the family tree.  As I unpacked each ornament, it was like traveling back to places on the timeline of our lives cherishing and savoring each one.  I remembered how the big bulky lights of my childhood shone on a couple of ornaments that are over the half century mark. I then realized just what a wonderful gift my husband gave to me by preserving these treasures in the face of a flood.  He is a true "memory keeper".  I looked at the ornaments that we purchased for our first tree, the ornaments we purchased each year of our children's lives, and now, ornaments that denote our grandchildren's lives. For the myriad of ornaments given by children and families I was blessed to serve over the years, those given by the friends and families we have been blessed to minister to and live life with. Gifts from special friends and special locations. I remembered making a lot of memories along the way, days and weeks of Christmas through eyes other than mine, I remember life being so busy that the end of the day in front of the tree was a priceless treasure. There were broken ornaments along the way (I broke two this year), but just thinking about the memories and moments held in the little pieces of resin, cloth and glass that remain make me proud to be "memory keeper"
Maybe I did things backwards this year, but maybe not.  Putting up my tree before Thanksgiving gave a new perspective to the things I am most Thankful for:  for the glimpses of Christmases past, for the reminders of friendship and God's hand in our lives, and for memories yet to be made.  These ornaments are a sign or a monument to the goodness of a God who has intricately woven reminders of His gifts of love in our lives into one place (a tree), to point us to His greater gift, His Son who was all to familiar with a very different kind of tree. 

Christmas before Thanksgiving?  Maybe so. Thankful for memories kept and made and for the One who gives all good and perfect gifts.