"Tradition".....not just something your Grandma did..

This is an excerp from my daughter-in-law Traci Purdum Von Duyke's blog, written for her landscape contractor client....

Guest blogger Traci Purdum

I love traditions. Traditions make you feel like a part of something bigger – something that will live on long after you’ve gone. For my family, my mother-in-law is the keeper of traditions, and this time of year she is busy ensuring the traditions don’t fall by the wayside. I’m certain she feels like no one really cares about the effort she puts forth – but I’m also certain that if she took the year off she’d soon realize she is the glue that holds the family together.

I first entered the family at Christmastime. That first Christmas introduced me to one of my favorite traditions – Trekking out to the horse barn on Christmas Eve to hear the horses talk. Legend has it that animals all over the world are given a voice for a very short time to chat it up before Santa arrives. In the 15 years with the family have I ever heard a horse speak? No – but that’s not the point. The point is that every Christmas Eve I spend on this Earth will remind me of that tradition – and of my mother-in-law.

The following is the legend...a tradition that I love to keep....

The Night The Animals Talked
In the frosty mountains and on the snowy fields of Norway, there is a legend that draws children to all kinds to stables and stalls throughout the country on each Christmas Eve night. They are hoping to hear a miracle. They are waiting to hear the animals talk.

Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. This was no abandoned place, but was a working stable, filled with animals of all kinds. Into these humble surroundings, encircled by the innocent creatures of God, the Savior of man came into the world. Now according to legend, at least, Christ's birth occurred at exactly midnight. Inside the stable, the animals watched in wonder as the new-born babe was lovingly wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. Suddenly, God gave voice to the animals and immediately they began to praise God for the miracle they had just seen. This went on for several minutes and, just before the entrance of the shepherds -- who had hurried to the stable because angels had told them the Christ had been born there -- the animals again fell silent. The only humans who had heard them were Mary, Joseph and, of course, the Christ child.

The legend of the talking animals persists to this day in Scandinavia. And every Christmas Eve, wide-eyed children creep into stables just before midnight to hear the animals praise God for the wondrous birth of His Son. Of course, adults scoff at this. "Old wives tales," they grump. "Those children should be home in bed, not out in the cold waiting for the family cow to preach a sermon."

But the children know -- or at least believe -- that animals really do praise God at midnight every Christmas Eve.

And who of us -- those who believe in an all-powerful God -- can say that it really doesn't happen?