One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is making Holiday Cookies. It is the only time of year that I make these particular cookies. I gather the ingredients and mix them together. While I’m waiting for the dough to stiffen in the fridge, I search through my cupboards for the cookie cutters since I forgot where I put them last year. I roll out dough and carefully cut out stars, trees and angels and place them on cookie sheets before popping them in the oven for a quick bake. Once they are all baked and cooled on my counter, I sit down in front of a Christmas movie and spend the evening icing them with the appropriate color icing.
I am fully aware that no one else in my family cares whether they get to eat Holiday Cookies or not. I’m the only one that has a particular interest in them or in maintaining this particular tradition. In recent years I’ve recruited the help of my niece in an effort to pass on a love of Holiday Cookies to someone else. Time will tell whether I’ve succeeded or not.
So why is this tradition so important to me? What a great question! Thanks for asking. Before I explain my obsession with these cookies let me explain how this relates to studying the Bible.
Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash
Have you ever read a passage of scripture and wondered why Paul wrote it? Or why Jesus did what he did or said what he said? Or why the prophets in the Old Testament spoke such harsh messages of judgment or what was going on in their world? Have you ever wondered why the people of Israel worshiped the golden calf at Mt. Sinai? Or what their life would have been like wandering in the wilderness? Have you ever tried to get into the head or mindset of Pharisees? Or the woman at the well? Have you considered what it was like to walk down the streets of Jerusalem or Corinth? Why did the people of the Bible do the things they did? What was going on in their lives? What was going on around them?
These are the questions that bring the Bible to life. These are the questions that help us step into the world of the Bible and understand it. In more formal terms, these are the questions that help us understand the historical background of the Bible. Before we can apply the Bible to our lives, we need to understand what it meant to the people it was written to. In order to do that, we need to know and understand their world. We need to know the backstory.
Its just like my Holiday Cookie tradition. In order to understand why I keep up this tradition each year, you need to know the backstory. The backstory goes back 33 years. When I was in elementary school, my grade one teacher baked Holiday Cookies with us students for Valentines Day. She was a favorite teacher and it was a fun day at school plus the cookies tasted delicious. At the end of the day she gave us a copy of the recipe. The recipe had pictures of Christmas cookies on it and so my mom saved the recipe and made them again at Christmas. They became a favorite and were among the many cookies and dainties baked around the Christmas season in our house. I often played a part in cutting them out, icing them and of course eating them. The backstory to my Holiday Cookie tradition is not profound. But you now know why biting into a Holiday Cookie means so much more to me than to anyone else in my family. Its not just a delicious sugar cookie. Its a precious memory compounded over the years of Christmas celebrations.
Just as knowing the backstory to my Holiday Cookie tradition helps you to know and understand me and why I maintain this tradition, so understanding the historical background of the Bible can help you know and understand the people you meet in its pages. So dig in, discover and explore the historical background of the Bible.
PS. If you want to start your own Holiday Cookie tradition here is the recipe:
Holiday Cookies
1 cup butter
1 ¼ cups icing sugar
1 ½ tbsp vanilla
1 egg
2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, soda and salt. Blend gradually into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half; chill if dough is soft. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut into shapes. Back in a preheated oven at 350 degrees about 8-12 minutes. (Enjoy!)