A New Christmas Tradition

I’m writing this on Christmas morning during some quiet time at home before the girls come over. They’re with their mom the first half of winter break this year, which means they do Christmas eve and Christmas morning at her house. But their mom and I decided years ago that they would spend time with each parent on Christmas day, so I’ll pick them up later this morning and we’ll get to do a little Christmas at my house.

I just re-read my 2014 Christmas blog post, and I realized I never found a Nativity scene I liked when I went shopping the post-Christmas sales last year. Inspired by a message from Nic Allen, our Family and Children’s Pastor, I had intended to add a Nativity scene to the Stately Bruff Manor decorations this year, as a way to make the Christmas story more central to our Christmas celebrations. Nic’s family starts Christmas day with a Nativity hunt. The Nativity figures are hidden all over the house, the kids find them and bring them to Bethlehem, and then they hear the Christmas story. I love this tradition, and I wish I had started it in my family years ago!

However, I believe I’ve started a new Christmas tradition this year, one that also brings the story of Jesus to the center of Christmas. A couple of weeks ago, I took the twelve-year-old to Andrew Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb” Christmas concert at the Ryman in downtown Nashville. It was her first proper concert, her first visit to the Ryman, and her first time to walk around downtown Nashville at night. Dinner out with dad (at Jack’s BBQ) and seeing the neon lights of lower Broadway would have been a treat all by itself, but the concert at the Ryman made the night magical.

I started hearing good things about Andrew Peterson’s Christmas concert a couple of years ago. Last year, I was in Mexico when the concert came to Nashville, so I missed it. This year, I bought two tickets as soon as they went on sale. Andrew Peterson is a Christian singer-songwriter, and the first part of the concert consists of him and more than a dozen of his very talented friends sharing songs with the audience. Some were Christmas-themed, most weren’t, but all were beautiful. After intermission, Andrew Peterson and team play through his entire “Behold the Lamb of God” Christmas album, one of the most beautiful renderings of the Christmas story I’ve heard.

The highlight for the twelve-year-old was seeing Sierra Hull, a bluegrass mandolin player (like, one of the best bluegrass mandolin players on the planet) she’s been a fan of for years. My daughter also really liked “Is It Real?”, a song by Andy Gullahorn about God’s love and Donald Trump’s hair. Also pretty cool: Sally Lloyd-Jones, author of the Jesus Storybook Bible I raved about in my 2014 Christmas blog post, was on hand to read from her book as an introduction to the “Behold the Lamb” section of the concert.

For me, seeing Sierra Hull play live was a treat, but Andrew Peterson stole the show when he performed with his daughter, who’s not much older than my daughter. She sang (beautifully) a song Andrew wrote for one of the books in his Wingfeather Saga, a fantasy series, and later Andrew sang to her “Be Kind to Yourself,” a song of encouragement. Andrew Peterson’s songs tell powerful stories, and his songs about a father’s love for his children were deeply moving for me. With my own daughter sitting right next to me on one of those old Ryman church pews, head resting on my shoulder, there was much daddy-daughter love in the house that night.

Maybe thirty minutes in, the twelve-year-old leaned over and whispered to me, “Dad, can we make this concert a Christmas tradition?” You bet.

Our night out at the Ryman was a special way to wrap up a challenging fall. The twelve-year-old started middle school this year, and we quickly learned that sixth grade is almost nothing like fifth grade. She moved from our local public school to a nearby private school, where she found she was no longer the brightest kid in her class. Middle school academics are more challenging, both in terms of learning objectives and the level of responsibility required to stay on top of her work. Math has been particularly hard for her this fall. Good thing she has an experienced math tutor on hand (or on FaceTime) whenever she needs homework help! But the social aspects of middle school are perhaps even more challenging. She’s a twelve-year-old girl with twelve-year-old friends, after all.

I traveled a lot this fall. Four trips, including one to Saudi Arabia, over seven weeks. Being away from my girl was tough, and I’ve made a deliberate choice to limit my travel in 2016. She needs her dad, every day. Sometimes it’s help with math, but more often she just needs to know I love her and think she’s wonderful. As a guy and former middle school nerd, I’m no good at helping her navigate her social scene at school, but I can give her some of the confidence she needs to make her way. She needs to know her dad is in her corner, that he believes in her, and that means spending time with her, giving her my attention, and telling her in different ways how much I love her.

That’s why the “Behold the Lamb” concert was such a special time for us. Thanks, Andrew Peterson, for giving my family this gift and for pointing us to the heavenly father who loves us so much.