"O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How lovely are your branches!
Your boughs are green in summer's clime
And through the snows of wintertime.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How lovely are your branches!"

I am sitting right now in the glow of our beautiful Christmas tree. Last week our younger son and I went to the tree lot to choose it and waited while two Boy Scout fathers tied it to the top of our car. We inched our way along city streets and across bridges to finally get it to its new home…..our living room. As we drove more leisurely and carefully than usual we talked about why we were actually doing this…..bringing a somewhat live tree into our house, that is. I explained that it is an ancient, pre-Christian custom associated with creating a reminder that even in the dead and cold of winter, new life will return like the evergreen. We both agreed that this was a tradition worth keeping for a very long time.

Throughout time Christians have affirmed and rejected this ancient custom for all kinds of reasons. But I believe it is here to stay. As long as people need a reminder that life will always triumph, that the branches of a tree that continues to shine green into the world in the midst of winter is a wondrous thing, I believe we will continue to haul trees into our homes. Whether real or artificial, the very act of moving furniture around and making room for a tree in the house stirs up a sense of reflection on all that brings beauty and hope. 

In addition to bringing beauty and a sense of wonder into our living room, the Christmas tree also chronicles our family's life. As ornaments are hung on the branches we can see the history of our family emerge. Ornaments given as baby gifts, others in recognition of special loves we each have…soccer, basketball, fishing, angels. Still others were made by small hands and dated for years in pre-school, kindergarten, elementary school. Each a memory of years gone by but entered into once more when brought out of the storage box and placed with reverence on the prickly branch of the tree.

I am always reminded of this fact each year as we place one particular ornament on the tree.  At the top of our tree a small ornament encases a whirling fan-like object given to me when I was a child by my grandmother's friend, Mame Woods, whose name I would never remember except through the placement of this ornament. As I look up right now it is whirling round and round driven by the small amount of heat generated by the twinkling lights.

So this ancient custom meant to remind us that life will continue even in the darkest winters does more than that. It connects us with our past and helps us name and celebrate the present in which we live this day, this moment, this Christmas.  Bringing this evergreen inside and making room for it at the center of our living encourages us to look for the life that is already present. The life that is real and precious and eternal, clothed not only in green but in the stories represented in glass, paper and plastic hung by metal hooks year after year. 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches!

Have a blessed weekend………