Thursday, Dec 9, 2021
What’s On Your Tree?
Is there a tree in your home, all decorated for the Holidays? If so, how did you decorate it? Did you hang lights on it? What about ornaments? Are you tempting fate with your vacuum cleaner by using popcorn or tinsel?
I was raised with four other siblings. As a child, our tree always contained a hodge-podge, patchwork variety of all kinds of homemade stuff that we brought home from school. In true childlike fashion, our names would be etched on the back with the date just underneath. (I’m so glad my teachers coerced us to put the date on them – I had no idea I was so brilliantly talented as a child!) Tinsel (remember, this was the 1970’s) was hanging from the branches and all kinds of colored lights were crammed in every opening.
No, the local fire marshal would never have
approved, but decorating the tree was one of the highlights of the season. We usually had a real tree. I don’t remember dad bringing it home, so I’m guessing my older brothers helped him get it into the house. My little sister and I would bounce in and help mom decorate. I remember arguing with someone (likely my siblings… maybe my older sister?) about placing all my homemade ornaments on the tree. Of course, over the years my ornaments would break. I’d try to glue them back together, but that didn’t really work.
At Christmastime, some of us feel like a patchwork tree, complete with broken ornaments and too many lights. I know that, at times, I feel like a walking fire hazard. But a big piece of the Christmas Season is the recognition that God doesn’t care about what we see in the mirror. God doesn’t mind if our popcorn is 3-years stale or if our dated tinsel is a little over the top. Rather, God is looking at us on the inside.
This Christmas, remember that none of us are perfect. The department store trees, perfectly decorated with meticulously crafted and unbroken ornaments, pretty bows and ribbons, and a glistening, crystal tree-topper, aren’t real trees. We don’t need to compare our trees to theirs, and we don’t need to compare ourselves to our neighbor whose life seems perfect. All we need to do is recognize that God made us exactly the way we need to be and God is proud of His work.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Have no regard for his appearance or stature, because I haven’t selected him. God doesn’t look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7, CEB).