Christmas Trees

 

Photo by Stephen Paterson on Unsplash

When I was a kid, I remember two different ways we got Christmas trees.  One was to go out to the tree farm and cut one down. The people at the farm would usually shake them on a machine that's kind of like the paint-shaking machine at the hardware store to get debris and bugs off. One year after we put the tree inside our station wagon, a giant grasshopper started hopping around the inside of the car.  I was mortified.  We immediately pulled over to shoo it out, but it was still a tenuous drive home.

The other way was to buy a live tree in a pot that got planted in the ground after Christmas.  One year, the Christmas tree got planted in the backyard and over the years grew taller than our two-story house.  Somewhere there are pictures of me standing in front of that tree at various stages of growth.

As an adult, we've had trees we cut down at the tree farm, pre-cut trees from a tree lot, and artificial trees, but not a live tree in a pot...yet.  I'm still hoping that one of these days we'll do that again, though cost, weight, availability and allergies are some of the obstacles.

One year all we had was our artificial pre-lit tree.  We were having health challenges that year, and couldn't manage the large bins of decorations. So the bins stayed in the storage shed, and we were thankful for the ease and beauty of a small, pre-lit, artificial tree.

Even when we decorate, the tree is the first thing that goes up, and the last thing to come down. The tree is the center of our celebration, sort of like Jesus is the center of our lives.

Matthew Sleeth, in Christianity Today, says that "other than God and people, [trees] are the most mentioned thing in the Bible." Sleeth notes that, "Without trees, there is no resurrection, no Good News on Easter morning. The cross is really a tree of life chainsawed down by man’s sin."

The Bible begins and ends with the Tree of Life (Genesis 2:9, Revelation 2:7; 22:2,14,19). The Psalms and Proverbs equate trees with wisdom (Psalm 1, Prov 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4.) Trees are a part of our seeking God. Zaccheus climbed one to see Jesus (Matt. 19). Like Jesus, we go into the wilderness to spend time with God.

I think we're much better at cutting down trees than we are at planting them, but we need to change that. I personally have had a challenging relationship with growing things. I have a black thumb.  But I'm determined to learn how to do better, especially with trees.  And with God's help, I hope I can.

Thanks, God.