O Christmas Tree

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We put up the Christmas tree on Election Day this year. I know it was obscenely early but this whole election cycle has been insane. We needed something to smile about and be hopeful for, to leverage perspective by focusing on what is true spiritually, while the world continues its crazy, unpredictable spin.

I can’t think of anyone better to focus on than Jesus.

Obviously, Jesus is not in a Christmas tree. He is not more present in our home by its standing in the corner of the living room. There is nothing magical about its branches and nothing redemptive in the lights and ornaments that hang from them. There is little spirituality in ritual that’s been embraced by secular and even pagan traditions.

And yet, within the right context, maybe there could be a little bit of both.

There are many legends that attempt to identify the beginnings of the Christmas tree but there is little truth, redemptive or otherwise, to the tales. What is most likely is that Christmas trees began to be displayed and decorated in Germanic Europe during the Middle Ages as a way to help people “see” the story of Christmas (Bertaina, 266).

At this particular time in history, the masses could not read or write (Bertaina, 266). Scripture was locked in a language that was no longer spoken or understood. Before heroes of the Reformation translated Scripture into the common language (Doney, 9-13), Bible stories were communicated through plays (Bertaina, 266).

December 24 was the traditional feast day for Adam and Eve. In plays performed for that celebration, the medieval equivalent of modern stage crews displayed a Paradise Tree to represent the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil God placed in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). They were decorated with apples symbolizing the fall of man and round pastry wafers symbolizing the body of Christ remembered through Communion. The actor playing Adam would have walked this tree through town to illustrate the arc of redemption. By one tree Humankind fell, on another we were redeemed (Bertaina, 266).

There were many things Medieval clergy got wrong (Doney, 11), but this they captured beautifully. You cannot fully celebrate Jesus’ birth without remembering that He came to die for our sin.

Now if we fast forward to today, a Christmas tree means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some it evokes feelings of family and child-like wonder. For others it is a commercial representation of a secularized holiday. Some may even be overcome with sadness because it reminds them that someone they love is gone.

I think the lesson here is that the value we assign to it matters. When we look at a Christmas tree what do we think, feel, remember? I love that our church has decided to celebrate Christmas with joy and wonder, choosing to focus on who we are and what Good News we have to celebrate through the sights and songs of the season. Perhaps this is what inspired the early arrival of Christmas to our own home.

In a world that has become so divided by party lines and policies, election winners and losers, believers need to remember what unites us and Who we follow. The Lord’s hand is not stayed by Republicans or Democrats, nor is it moved except according to His will. This has been true throughout time and will continue to be true as long as the world continues to turn (Lamentations 3:37, Daniel 4:32b, Amos 3:6b, Ephesians 1:11b).

God is still in control. He is still the King and this, my friends, is not our country. The heroes of our faith understood this truth well.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV

We can be grieved or grateful in this season, but we must hold tight to what is absolutely, unequivocally true. Jesus laid aside the glories of heaven to become like us (Philippians 2:7) so He could rescue us from our sin. There is no comfort or gladness to be found in the manger unless we also embrace the cross. Christ is as much our hope and joy as He is our deliverance and redemption, a wonder that is so aptly summarized in the illustration of our decorated Christmas trees.

Even if you’re not an early decorator like me, by now, the trees are everywhere – adorning shopping malls and church altars alike – quietly beckoning us to remember Who we celebrate and inviting us into hope for the future He has promised those who believe.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:1-5

Surely friends, He is coming again soon. May our hearts welcome Him this Christmas and bid Him come (Revelation 22:20).

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

References and Further Reading

How the Bible came to Us
Doney, Meryl. How the Bible came to us: The Story of the Book that Changed the World. Colorado Springs, Colo: David C. Cook, 2007.

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas
Bertaina, David. “Trees and Decorations.” Essay. In The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, 263–76. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.