Every year as Christmas approaches, unwelcome pressures of the season begin settling heavily on my shoulders, adding to the abundant "already" pressures of life, and I commonly find myself unwittingly...
Surrounded by grace, in my face, I don't see
So blind to the presence of God's gifts to me
Consumed on my own with the trying to be
Ignoring the truth of the futility
Jesus? Good news? Do I just kind of agree?
Thank God for the preaching of our Christmas tree!
Not Too Early
It's early in the morning while everyone is still sleeping, in a dark room lit only by Christmas tree lights, when the promised Peace of Christmas speaks most clearly to my heart. The Speaker takes the form of a voiceless dead pine tree, and yet, without life or a voice, it somehow preaches a compelling message of the beauty of God's grace to me each year. It's a message that I desperately need to hear at Christmas (and every day between Christmases.) It's a message you need to hear too. Here's what our tree preaches:
Preacher Tree
Preacher tree's sermon begins with his testimony. He grew up "up north" on a tree farm, and his life was just fine... until tragedy struck. Someone cut him down, and took him far, far from home. There he lay, trapped, lost, hopeless, helpless, and destitute until the day we found him and saved him. We purchased him, and brought him into our home. That was only the beginning of the grace we wanted to lavish on him.
Upon his arrival in our living room we surrounded him with love and care. Since he couldn't stand on his own we gave him stability and security with a tree stand. We honored his branches with ornaments so that he would bless all he met. We wrapped him with solid and blinking lights, and he began to shine. We clothed him with tinsel, and he began to sparkle. Finally, we crowned him with a star, placed gifts under his branches, and charged him to stand over and draw attention to those gifts we'd prepared for others.
He's so very thankful that we saved him... sometimes. Other times, as he stands so beautifully, he takes for granted all the gracious things we've done for him focusing instead on the things we haven't done. He sighs with discouragement as he stares at the dark spots in his branches, and gasps with disappointment when the lights on his branches blink off deepening the darkness. Pain stabs at him when he looks down at his amputated trunk and remembers that he used to stand on his own roots. Not anymore, now he is absolutely dependent on us for his life. Occasionally, he'll even admit that he doesn't want our unmerited favor. He longs for his own independent roots, to live entirely on his own, and to be celebrated for it. He'll wallow in that thought for a while, but then he'll remember that the only way for him to gain this beautiful life we'd given him, was to lose the life he had.
A Truth to See
With the final words of his testimony ringing in my ears, the Spirit reminds me again why Jesus is so very, very good news, and how I'm just like our tree. I worship God for His lavish grace! I was dead in my sin and outside the kingdom of God with absolutely no ability to get in. God chose me, bought me, and brought me into His kingdom for His own reasons, not because of what I'd done that I could take any credit. I needed to lose my old life - to be saved, to be welcomed into His kingdom, and to gain the new life He has for me. My salvation didn't stop there, though. God continues daily to lavish gracious love on me. He honors me with things and talents according to His purposes for me. He wraps me and clothes me with skills, abilities, and circumstances to equip me for the plans He will accomplish in and through me. He crowns me with Jesus marking me forever His. He charges me to shine His light and proclaim the good news of Jesus, His message of grace, to all who come near.
A Lot Like Me
Unfortunately, just like Mr Tree, it's far too easy and common for me to focus on the dark spots of my life: the things I'm not good at, the qualities I'll never have, the things I'll never do, the frequency and repetition of my failures, the places I will never go, the person I'll never be, etc. The problem is not that I recognize the "dark spots," but the conclusion I draw. If "Mr. Tree" could actually speak and complained about his dark spots, I'd explain to him that his dark spots actually make him more beautiful to me than if he was completely covered with lights. I wouldn't want to, and maybe couldn't even, look at a tree that was so bright that there was no dark left. It's the contrast between the light and the dark that makes the light all the more beautiful. I think that's how God sees me. I'm wrapped in His bright and beautiful grace so that my sinfulness and inability, my darkness, magnifies His grace so it shines all the more beautifully.
Additionally, sometimes I experience God's grace for a moment or a season only to have it blink off in the next. As painful as that can be to me, it doesn't make me less beautiful to God. Instead, I suspect that His giving and taking of grace in my life causes me to be more beautiful to Him just like the blinking lights on our tree make it more beautiful to me.
Lastly, and perhaps most profoundly for me this year, is the recognition that our tree has no independent life giving roots, and neither do I. "Mr Tree" is not truly alive, and, no matter what my family does, he will never be again except by a miracle. However, the miracle of a dead person being made alive in Jesus is exactly what's true of me! No God doesn't "grow new roots" for me, my "trunk" is still amputated. Instead, He makes me alive, even to bud and grow, by feeding me though His "lights" on my branches! That's a better picture of the life we have in Jesus. It's not easy to believe that the source of a tree's life could come through it's branches after it's been cut from it's roots. Similarly, it can be a sobering, even discouraging, reality that I can not possibly grow by my own ability, my own "roots."
I too will admit that I don't always want grace. That realization, though, forces me to consider this. Jesus was loved because He came to give grace, AND Jesus was hated and killed because He came to give grace. Grace means unmerited favor. It means good that we don't deserve. It means good that we can't deserve. No one who is unable or unwilling to admit their own guilt and just condemnation wants grace. God's justice demands my death, but God's grace gives me life instead! It's my inability and my painful lack of merit that make me eligible for the amazing unmerited favor of Jesus!
Christmas Tree-ology
Here's my point: Whenever I don't recognize God's grace in my life, and I want to be righteous without His help, I'm disagreeing with God and proclaiming in my heart that Jesus isn't good news. That's a dangerous place to be. Enter Christmas Tree-ology! My Christmas Tree-ology is this: just like our tree I'm standing by grace, clothed in grace, surrounded by grace, shining from grace, crowned with grace, proclaiming His grace, and it's my darkness and weakness that makes the light and strength of His grace all the more beautiful! Yes, grace from Jesus is very, very good news!
So if you ever find yourself...
Surrounded by grace, in your face, you don't see
So blind to the presence of God's gifts to ye
Consumed on your own with the trying to be
Ignoring the truth of the futility
Jesus is Good news! If you don't really agree?
Consider the preaching of a Christmas tree!
