One of the greatest spiritual lessons of this year's Christmas season came, for me, via our Christmas tree.
This year, we got our tree earlier than ever. Usually we wait until a week or two after Thanksgiving, heading out together as a family on the weekend near iivo's birthday. This year we adults were to be gone that weekend, so we headed out the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
I love the many holiday traditions that have developed over the years for our family, especially the silly ones that make sense to no one but to those of us who have lived through the years of making them. The tradition of heading out to choose from the really great, just-$14.99 trees at Taylor's Do-It Center is one of them. Many years ago we decided to replace the artificial tree with a real one, complete with the smell and look and feel of real pine, and the then-$9.99 bargain at Taylor's suited the small budget of our small family. Over the years the family has grown, but the budget for the tree has not, so we've continued to shell out the less-than-twenty dollars, enjoying rather to spend a few extra bucks on a once-a-year lunch at Tijuana Flats, conveniently situated right across the road from Taylor's. It costs our little brood of six a pretty penny to enjoy this fun, Mexican fare, so this is our once-a-year splurge of grilled burritos and queso and guacamole feasting.
This year the selection of trees was better than ever. "Maybe earlier is better!" we thought. We selected the largest, fullest, greenest tree we have ever gotten from the bargain rack at Taylor's! We cut off the bottom again ourselves, at home, and placed it right into the water bucket. We mixed the "preservation solution" as instructed, and the tree drank and drank. For the first year ever, I think, we had a tree that was actually taking in the liquid we kept checking the level of. Pitcherfuls of the stuff disappeared.
And then it happened. The drinking tree, greener and fuller than any we've ever chosen, began to drop its needles. Sure, this always happens, but not like this. This tree, still lovely and green-looking, was shedding them fast. If you brushed past it, you heard a shower of needles fall to the ground. Bare patches began to appear on the branches.
Evergreens, we call them. They don't drop their leaves. They are never meant to stand skeletal and empty. Yet this one, clad only in twinkling colored lights, was undressing quickly. Hanging ornaments on it was out of the question... every time we even touched it, it would send down that rain of needles! Winston would stand near it, tail wagging, and with each "thwap" we'd hear the familiar sound of falling pine. It began to be a joke. iivo reached inside and grabbed the trunk, giving it a good shake. A sound filled the room, remarkably like the fake rain drops of "Spring Shower" on the white noise app. It would have been really sad if it weren't so laughable... so laugh we did! We accepted the bittersweet reality of The-Year-Without-Ornaments-On-The-Tree.
And I began to ponder these things in my heart. I became vaguely uneasy about the spiritual lesson trying to push its way into my consciousness. The quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit began to convict me. "I am the vine. You are the branches." Snatches of memorized Words found their way into my mind. "If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you..." What was that promise? Snippets. Warnings. "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers." The words of John 15 weaved their way into my Christmas musings.
I also began to ponder the words Nat King Cole sang to me in German. "O Tannenbaum," he crooned, and a bunch of other unfamiliar sounds. I began to wonder what these guttural words meant. As I studied the literal English transliteration of the original German words, the full import of the lesson began to make its way into my heart.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!
You're green not only in the summertime,
No, also in winter when it snows.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
You can please me very much!
How often has not at Christmastime
A tree like you given me such joy!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
You can please me very much!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your dress wants to teach me something:
Your hope and durability
Provide comfort and strength at any time.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
That's what your dress should teach me.
And it is true! The boughs of the evergreen do stand strong and true and green through all seasons and all circumstance. All seasons and all circumstance save one. When cut off from the source of life, it begins to wither. "You are the branches..."
And so this year we were given the gift of a dying evergreen, the parable of its dropping needles reminding us with each passing day what happens when we do not abide in Him.
This year, we got our tree earlier than ever. Usually we wait until a week or two after Thanksgiving, heading out together as a family on the weekend near iivo's birthday. This year we adults were to be gone that weekend, so we headed out the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
I love the many holiday traditions that have developed over the years for our family, especially the silly ones that make sense to no one but to those of us who have lived through the years of making them. The tradition of heading out to choose from the really great, just-$14.99 trees at Taylor's Do-It Center is one of them. Many years ago we decided to replace the artificial tree with a real one, complete with the smell and look and feel of real pine, and the then-$9.99 bargain at Taylor's suited the small budget of our small family. Over the years the family has grown, but the budget for the tree has not, so we've continued to shell out the less-than-twenty dollars, enjoying rather to spend a few extra bucks on a once-a-year lunch at Tijuana Flats, conveniently situated right across the road from Taylor's. It costs our little brood of six a pretty penny to enjoy this fun, Mexican fare, so this is our once-a-year splurge of grilled burritos and queso and guacamole feasting.
This year the selection of trees was better than ever. "Maybe earlier is better!" we thought. We selected the largest, fullest, greenest tree we have ever gotten from the bargain rack at Taylor's! We cut off the bottom again ourselves, at home, and placed it right into the water bucket. We mixed the "preservation solution" as instructed, and the tree drank and drank. For the first year ever, I think, we had a tree that was actually taking in the liquid we kept checking the level of. Pitcherfuls of the stuff disappeared.
And then it happened. The drinking tree, greener and fuller than any we've ever chosen, began to drop its needles. Sure, this always happens, but not like this. This tree, still lovely and green-looking, was shedding them fast. If you brushed past it, you heard a shower of needles fall to the ground. Bare patches began to appear on the branches.
Evergreens, we call them. They don't drop their leaves. They are never meant to stand skeletal and empty. Yet this one, clad only in twinkling colored lights, was undressing quickly. Hanging ornaments on it was out of the question... every time we even touched it, it would send down that rain of needles! Winston would stand near it, tail wagging, and with each "thwap" we'd hear the familiar sound of falling pine. It began to be a joke. iivo reached inside and grabbed the trunk, giving it a good shake. A sound filled the room, remarkably like the fake rain drops of "Spring Shower" on the white noise app. It would have been really sad if it weren't so laughable... so laugh we did! We accepted the bittersweet reality of The-Year-Without-Ornaments-On-The-Tree.
And I began to ponder these things in my heart. I became vaguely uneasy about the spiritual lesson trying to push its way into my consciousness. The quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit began to convict me. "I am the vine. You are the branches." Snatches of memorized Words found their way into my mind. "If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you..." What was that promise? Snippets. Warnings. "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers." The words of John 15 weaved their way into my Christmas musings.
I also began to ponder the words Nat King Cole sang to me in German. "O Tannenbaum," he crooned, and a bunch of other unfamiliar sounds. I began to wonder what these guttural words meant. As I studied the literal English transliteration of the original German words, the full import of the lesson began to make its way into my heart.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!
You're green not only in the summertime,
No, also in winter when it snows.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
You can please me very much!
How often has not at Christmastime
A tree like you given me such joy!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
You can please me very much!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your dress wants to teach me something:
Your hope and durability
Provide comfort and strength at any time.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
That's what your dress should teach me.
And it is true! The boughs of the evergreen do stand strong and true and green through all seasons and all circumstance. All seasons and all circumstance save one. When cut off from the source of life, it begins to wither. "You are the branches..."
And so this year we were given the gift of a dying evergreen, the parable of its dropping needles reminding us with each passing day what happens when we do not abide in Him.
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