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Businesses and other organizations give employees paid holidays. For some, it’s just a day without work. But many use holidays to celebrate history: personal, ethnic, national, or global. Without history, we lose our identity, our sense of who we are. We are rootless, aimless, like fish out of water, unable to function as we might. That is why parents transmit family history to their children. They also give them meaningful experiences they can recall as they grow up. To that end, God gave ancient Israel life-changing events to pass on spiritual values to their offspring. Here is what Moses said about one event—The Festival of Shelters, found in Leviticus chapter 23: “Celebrate with joy before the LORD your God for 7 days. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation. For 7 days you must live outside in little shelters… This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” Today, we as people living under the New Covenant. Do not follow those customs. Yet the idea of celebrating God’s goodness and blessings still remains. We do it, not only for ourselves, but to transmit values to the next generation of children.
