As Christmas approaches ever so quickly, I find myself lost in the thoughts that seem to have gathered together like lumps of coal in wretched stocking labeled 2020.
For this, I decided to start writing and let the words lead the post. I’m not sure if this will work. Lets find out together.
I’m currently sitting in my living room staring at two Christmas trees.
Yes… two.
If you find yourself asking why, I’d say that’s a valid question and it’s one that I’ll gladly answer.
Not only has my family(wife, kids, self) never had a live Christmas tree in our home, neither my wife nor myself ever had one when we were children ourselves. We’ve talked about it over the last couple of years but never took a swing at it because we like to put our tree up at Thanksgiving. So obviously, for longevity reasons, a live tree wasn’t the wisest choice.
Again, we put the tree up at Thanksgiving. It’s a family tradition that was handed down from my parents and one we gladly partake of each year. We love it. It’s hard to beat that warm light glowing from the corner of our living room.
Yet, I had decided…
This year was not going to pass by without that pine smell, without the experience we’ve always wanted. No way.
With everything that has been thrown at us this year, not only as Americans, but as a family, no… this year wasn’t escaping us without a real tree.
So we did the only thing that seemed to make sense during a year such as this.
TWO TREES!
One fake: to put up early for tradition and that sweet ambiance.
One real: to put up as a fulfillment of personal nature and a double dose of “Christmas Spirit” among ourselves, through mindfulness of life and The Life.
Most simply though, with this country going down the path that it is and with liberty drying up like old fruit…
I wanted this tree. The end.
I wanted this simple gesture.
I wanted this freedom.
Like many, I still believe in and desire true liberty; even the freedom to have a living room that looks like more of a forest than a room.
For my family, Christmas very much centers on Jesus Christ, on God. Our faith and being Christian is not something we do culturally, nor only for holidays… it is our very life. It is who and what we are.
I’m thankful for this season of national remembrance and honor directed towards Him. Sure, they’ve been trying to secularize it and commercialize it for a very long time. Depending on who you ask, they may or may not have been successful. I can say without trepidation, as for me and my house, they have not succeeded and never will.
I love the mysteries of Christ and creation.
When I hunt for food, I’m grateful that God has provided the meat and the means for that meat to reproduce itself. When a tree is felled, the means to reproduce itself is left, even as the individual tree is taken.
Through Christ, God created life. All of it. He created trees… the very means and the cycle that makes trees produce the air I inhale, then recycle and grow from that which I exhale. What a miracle this is. What a wonder. There is no end to the majesty of Christ!
Glory to God in the highest and A Very Merry Christmas, my friends.