Our Finest Christmas Tree: Short and Sweet Christmas Devotionals

[Editor’s Note: This is a Christmas guest post by Sandra Samoska. Well, that’s week 2 of Short and Sweet Diva Christmas in the books! Catch up with our abbreviated devotional series by following these links: day 1. day 2. day 3. day 4.  day 5.]

Our Finest Christmas Tree

When I first got married, there was an intense debate over the proper Christmas décor for our new home together. My husband insisted on Santa Claus, while I was equally adamant that snowmen were the way to go. Finally, we decided Christmas décor wasn’t worth our marriage, and we compromised by decorating with Christmas trees.

Each year we would pick out one new tree to display in our home – sometimes large, sometimes sparkly, and always different from the rest. We would arrange them on the fireplace mantle, and as we added to the collection each year, they spread out to other areas of the house.

One memorable year, the recession hit. I was a stay at home mom caring for our two young daughters, and my husband’s hours got cut at work. There was barely enough money in the budget that Christmas to keep the electricity on, much less to buy decorations.

One evening, as we were putting out the trees we had collected, my husband went out to the garage and came back with a small wooden tree he had cut out from a scrap of wood left over from some forgotten DIY project. It was unadorned and unpainted, with none of the pizazz of our other trees. It was also considerably shorter, and some of the edges were rough to the touch.

With tears in my eyes, I took that short, plain, perfect tree, and put it up with all of the rest.

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2 NIV

Every year, as I unpack our trees and put them up, I look at my little wooden tree that was humbly cut by my husband, and I think of the gift God gave us that first Christmas morning. Of that baby, born in a lowly manger, come to take on the sin of the world.

He had no majesty to his appearance, and yet His entire purpose was to bring glory to God. He didn’t sparkle, glitter or shine, and yet He was the light of the world who rescued us from darkness.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 NIV

Sandra Samoska is a wife and mother of four amazing kids. She writes about faith and family on her blog, Outnumbered, and has been a contributor for Her View From Home, Focus on the Family, and Scary Mommy. She loves to share what God is doing in her life, and how He frequently teaches her things through the children He has blessed her with.

 

 

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