While we do know that Christmas is in the air, the spirit of Christmas is now everywhere.
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire … With Christmas carols being played in retail stores and on the radio, Christmas ornaments adorning houses, Christmas decorations and stockings hanging everywhere. Christmas cookies, and egg nog are all in their places and retail stores, Amazon and other shopping sites are in full swing, but the highlight, the heart for most houses and most buildings is the Christmas tree which we place a star at the top of and gifts under it. The smell of cedar from live trees ferments the house with a beautiful aroma and gifts are laid so neatly under it bringing joy to all who see it, especially little children.
When it comes time to select a Christmas tree everybody wants the perfect tree on which to hang Christmas lights and beautiful ornaments. When it is adorned with the right decorations the Christmas tree is the most beautiful of all decorations. But it’s hard to find the perfect tree; the one that is the right size, height, and width. Depending on where it is placed, just any size will not do.
I remember as a little boy when we would go out looking for a tree for our house. We’d get in a car, take an axe and ride around looking in wooded areas for a tree and when we found one we would take an axe and cut it down, pack it in a car trunk hoping that it would fit under our roof, because in those days you didn’t measure, you just cut a tree that you thought was the right size and hoped that it would fit. And most of the time it would.
Christmas was not Christmas if we didn’t have a Christmas tree. Somehow the home was not a home if we didn’t have one. Even now as I observe certain homes I go to and from the Christmas tree, when decorated right, still stands out. It’s a beautiful sight to see, but you know, as beautiful as some Christmas trees are, as immaculate as some trees are, you will not find a perfect Christmas tree. Even those trees that are purchased from retail stores that are brand names are not perfect. I don’t care how much you pay for it or what you put on it, or how you fix it up, add to it, subtract and multiply it has a deficiency somewhere.
Maybe that’s because we are looking at the wrong thing when it comes to the perfect tree, and we’re looking at the wrong decorations on it. The perfect Christmas tree that I’m talking about this morning is not found in any store. You won’t find this tree on any lot where they sell Christmas trees. It’s not in the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York or in Washington D.C. as beautiful as those trees are. Despite the language, nobody can say “I have the perfect Christmas tree,” because no ordinary tree is perfect.
Community, there is a perfect Christmas tree, one without flaws and imperfections. The kind that you can’t buy with money. You won’t find the perfect tree in any field; the kind that I see in buildings and churches. There is only one place where you can find this tree and it stands alone, is unique and beautiful. All of us have seen it and it’s located on a hill far away on a place called Calvary.
It’s two pieces of wood in the form of a cross. It didn’t have lights on it, but it did have the light of the world on it! That’s what makes it the perfect tree. And what makes it perfect is what this tree stands for, all Christians know about this tree because if we have been brought into a relationship with God, it is because we all have had to stand there at the foot of this tree and what makes this tree perfect too is what took place on it.
You know I saw different tree lightings in the area; people gathered around waiting in anticipation for the annual tree lighting and when the tree was lit everybody erupted with applause. The official kickoff of the season, so they say; but what they don’t realize is the official kickoff of Christmas took place in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, and the first Christmas tree lighting was birthed on Golgotha’s Hill at Mt. Calvary.
All of the natural trees have ornaments, candy canes, ribbons and stars on them, don’t they? But, look at the perfect Christmas tree. Christmas himself, the reason for the season, LOVE himself hanging on this tree was the ornament; this was the first Christmas tree. He beautified it with His body.
In biblical times anytime somebody was crucified on a tree it was considered a curse (Deuteronomy 21:22-23); Christ being hung on a tree is a curse and served as a disgrace to all the Jews. It was reserved for the worst of criminals so Christ, being totally innocent was not guilty of any sin or crime was hung on a tree, and he became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).
Jesus, Mary’s little precious baby, oh what a wonderful child who was born in a manger, with no crib for his bed redeemed us, he brought our redemption by hanging on a tree. That’s what Christmas is all about. We can face tomorrow because of this tree, the devil is defeated because of this tree.
Community, I love this tree, the perfect Christmas tree.
The Rev. George Ellis is the pastor of Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.