A Family Legacy

As told to Kat Crawford by Miriam Segura

When Ted and I married, we pledged to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas. We started a lasting legacy on our first Christmas. Our tree held the usual lights, garland and baubles, but then on Christmas Day, we prayed together and hung two ornaments on the tree, the beginning of our family tradition.

That first year we chose a porcelain ornament from my parent's collection to symbolize the beauty of family togetherness. Then we added a bell to represent our marriage. We wrote Love is the nicest gift of all on the back of our bell along with our wedding date. Later we wrote about our year and packed the ornaments and their journals in a special box.

The year our daughter Hannah was born, we added a little angel ornament sitting on a cloud. When Daniel came along we found a teddy bear sitting on a candy cane. For David we chose a Christmas frame and added his picture.

We have gathered quite an ornament collection over the last seventeen years…many with a spiritual emphasis. Some of them bring a sense of sadness, like the year my mother died. We used an angel to symbolize her life and then when Dad died, the funeral home gave us a bell. We wrote the year on it, a beautiful symbol of love for the year.

This past year we experienced several monumental events. We took a mission trip to Tijuana, we paid off the loan for our medical practice, and our children were involved in several memorable events. How could we choose?

We were also faced with a great sadness this year. We love our minister and his family, but we learned not everyone felt the same. We couldn't understand the discord. We prayed for our pastor, his family and the church as a whole.

When December rolled around, we simply couldn't decide how to write about the year or choose an ornament.

Then Ted had a dream about a tree covered with beautiful birds. In the dream, he watched these gorgeous birds, each one sitting on their own branch. Then he saw a red cardinal fly from branch to branch until it finally lit on the only empty branch on the tree.

When Ted shared the dream with the family, all of us felt the birds on the tree were our congregation. The cardinal represented our Pastor and his loving care over our church family. Immediately, we decided to buy a red cardinal for our yearly ornament, it would serve as a reminder to pray for our ministers in years to come.

Of course, every year the kids look forward to our traditional event on Christmas Day saying, "Okay, it's time to decorate the tree." They make a big thing of walking out to the cold, cold garage to retrieve the special box. Back inside Ted and I sit on the couch and take turns reading the history of an ornament while the kids hang them.

We have fun. We laugh a lot.

One year we were incredibly busy and forgot to bring out the special ornaments. The day after Christmas, I flipped out. "Ted, we didn't decorate the tree. How could we forget?"

The whole family trekked to the garage storage to retrieve the ornaments. We didn't care if we were a day late. We figured in God's Kingdom time doesn't matter all that much. However, our time together, reflecting on God's grace to us and our family history is a most important family legacy.

Katherine J. Crawford writes from Omaha, Nebraska.