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Lights of the Christmas Tree

In the years when we were teenagers, Mama bought a silver aluminum Christmas tree, and we decorated it with all our old decorations she had accumulated over those early years. Our favorite lights were the old-fashioned bubble lights that looked like oil pumping up inside, made to look like a candle.

We had a couple of little plastic reindeer which looked like a rocking horse. I still have one of those plastic reindeer, pink and fragile, probably 60 years old. There was also a little Santa Claus and maybe an angel made out of the same plastic material. We had a beautiful angel to top the tree but I don’t remember much about what it looked like.

 I still have a few of those items myself, and have picked up a few over the years. Sorry to say, many of those items have totally fallen to pieces, because items made in the 1940s and 50s were made of a low-quality plastic and were not made to last 75 years.

 We loved the silver icicles or tinsel that we threw over the tree branches, and as recently as two years ago, I bought some like them to decorate my artificial tree. I read that the early icicles were made out of lead but the new ones available today are some kind of plastic with a metallic coating.

 What does any of this have to do with Christmas? Many Christians have turned away from decorating a tree for Christmas since it was obviously not part of the early-day Christian church’s holiday observations. There are many traditions that have sentimental value to many Christians and I’m one of those sentimental types. My personal opinion is that what the Bible speaks about, I teach. When the Bible is silent, I remain silent.

 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 NIV

All my memories of Christmases past revolve around the story of Jesus’ birth. He is the Light of the world and that’s what I remember when I see the lights of the Christmas tree.

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Christmas Traditions

Christmas has sure changed around our house. When our children were at home, our whole Christmas revolved around school and church plays.

“Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh in the white and drifting snow.” No, we didn’t travel very far to grandma’s house, because our grandmas lived in the same town.

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know.” Well, no white Christmas here. I looked it up on weather.com and the historic possibility of snow for Christmas in our area of Oklahoma is 5-10%.

“I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me.” Yes, we seldom traveled far from home, and we never traveled at Christmastime. Our time was committed to church and our families were here. Some people we knew traveled to Colorado to ski, but not us.

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la la la.” Most years the Christmas decorations went up two or three days before Christmas and came down New Year’s Day.

“Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.” We always had a good-sized adult choir for the Christmas cantata and most years we had a children’s choir too. We practiced every week from the middle of October until about the second week of December. Each year as I stood among the choir hearing the sweet voices raised to heaven, my heart swelled with love for Jesus Christ my Lord who willingly came to earth as a baby to live and die for me. Now Christmas choir practice is a distant memory.

“For is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 NKJV

And yes, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year. There’ll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing, when loved ones are near. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”

Traditions change, seasons change, but Christ must remain as the center of our Christmas

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The Real Christmas Tree

When we were kids, we always got our Christmas tree the last day of school before Christmas, given to us by the school teachers. Every year for many years, we put the tree up on Christmas Eve and left it up until New Year’s Day.

After I had my own home, I couldn’t get in the mood to decorate until Christmas Eve and I usually left my tree up until long after New Year’s Day. One year I even thought about turning my tree into a Valentine tree, a St Patrick’s tree, and an Easter tree, maybe even a 4th of July tree.

Of course I love a real cedar Christmas tree. I used to buy a real tree every year, usually from the Fire Station or grocery store. The last few years that I bought a real tree, I got a 3 or 4-foot tall Scotch pine to set on a corner table.

I love the smell of a real Christmas tree, but about 5 years ago, I was tested for allergies and discovered I am allergic to all cedar trees. I should have known. It seemed like I always had a cold, with a runny nose and sneezing around Christmas time each year. When I finally gave in and bought that first artificial Christmas tree, I mysteriously didn’t get sick.

Within the Christmas story is the story of the cross. God becoming flesh through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of a virgin, Mary—this is the beginning, but the end of the story is Christ on the tree, the cross of Calvary, giving Himself completely for the whole world.

“Because Christ also suffered for us… who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” I Peter 2:21-24.

From the words of the old hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, written by George Bennard, (1873-1958.) “So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.”

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SONGS OF THE HEART

Our holiday has always revolved around school and church Christmas programs. “Away in the manager, no crib for his bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.” Baby’s first song, sung at home and at the church altar for the grown-ups when we were too small to be in the regular Christmas play.

At school, from Thanksgiving on, we practiced for our Christmas play. Mamas made costumes for angels, shepherds, sheep. We envied the two who got to play Mary and Joseph. We sang “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” We memorized the unfamiliar words, singing them over and over with our music teacher, until we could sing them in our sleep. With no shyness,we sang at the tops of our voices, little children loving to sing.

In high school, we began to sing the harder songs. “O, Holy Night.” “Little Drummer Boy.” “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” “Hallelujah Chorus.” We started practicing long before Thanksgiving. Our Christmas concert was the culmination of months of work. We were proud of our hard work and sang with all our hearts.

I lived through it all again with my children. We put on huge productions at church with recorded music to sing to with rehearsals every Sunday night for at least 6 weeks. The music has changed, yet it stays the same. The same songs, new arrangements. Lavish stages, painted backdrops, special lighting.

At school, my daughter sang in the choir as I did many years before, so we had two  performances to work on—one at school and one at church. At times, it seemed music was running through our minds all day and all night.

What better way for God to get His Word into our hearts? He set it to music and caused the world to play it through the airwaves night and day, constantly, for 2 months of the year, sometimes starting as early as Halloween.

Christmas means music to me. It really was a “Silent Night, Holy Night” when Jesus was born. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill unto men.”  Luke 2:14

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Flat-bed Diesel Dually

One time years ago, I asked my little 4-year-old grandson what he wanted for Christmas and he said, “Just four things,” holding up four fingers. “A motorcycle, a four-wheeler, a race car, and a flat-bed diesel dually.” It took me a while to figure out what he was saying, “flat-bed diesel dually,” but I finally had him say it very slow.

I told him, “That is a lot of riding toys for one little boy. Can’t you think of anything else you would like?” “Not right now,” he said.

He is really expecting a lot. Every little kid always asks Santa Claus for some things he won’t get, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting and expecting. Then he is usually very happy with whatever he gets for Christmas.

As adults, we have been trained by the world not to expect much. The world says, “If you don’t expect much, you won’t be disappointed.”

Peter and John were on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer, when they met a lame man lying there begging for alms. No telling how many times they had passed him before, but this time they really noticed him. And he noticed them. The Bible says he looked at them expecting to receive alms, but they had something better for him than money.

Peter spoke to him and said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.  So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. Act 3:5-8 New King James Version.

You might not get a new flat-bed diesel dually, which for you city folks is a flat-bed diesel truck with a set of dual wheels on the back, but Jesus has only good things to give you. He has promised life everlasting, healing for your body, peace for your mind, and a home in heaven when this life on earth is over.

What are you expecting to receive from the Lord? You won’t be disappointed.

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Not Disposable

 

My mother gave me my Uncle Otis’ crank wall phone recently. It’s a wooden box just like the one you see in the movies, that hangs on the wall with a handle you turn, a earpiece, and a mouthpiece. I remember being fascinated with it when I saw it hanging on his wall in Albuquerque in 1958 when we stopped at his home on our way to California. It has been adapted to use as a dial-tone phone. That phone is over 100 years old.

I have my grandmother’s black dial desk phone too, with the clear plastic label in the center of the dial with her phone number neatly typed on it. She used it right up until she passed away in 1985. That phone is at least 50 years old.

I still have my own blue Slimline phone which I keep in the bedroom. I don’t keep it hooked up, since it has a loud ringer which can’t be turned off. That phone is about 41 years old.

We are now a throw-away society. It costs as much to fix something as to buy a new one. Many people are cancelling their landline phone and opting for only a cell phone. Some people get a new cell phone once a year when their contract runs out and throw away the old one.

If I were God, I would have been sorely tempted to discard Adam and Eve after they sinned.  After all, they were the only human beings alive. God could have easily created a new couple to take the place of Adam and Eve, and start all over with His plan, but He couldn’t do it. He created them himself out of the love in His heart, and, even when they failed, He had a plan to redeem them, because we aren’t disposable.

 “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.” Ephesians 1:4 The Message Bible.

Before He create the world, God in love had you and me on His mind