Christmas trees seem to be appearing earlier and earlier every year, don’t they? I’m not talking, too, about seeing trees and Christmas decorations in the shops that want you to buy their stuff, but in the homes of regular people like you and me. As someone with a November birthday, the idea of putting up the tree before my birthday was something we never entertained. It seems that people are watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music, and eating Christmas foods way earlier than ever before.
Why is that?
Is it, maybe, a Bahrain-specific thing:
I’m travelling soon but want to enjoy some Christmas cheer here before I leave?
Perhaps…but there might be a bigger-picture reason.
When we decorate for Christmas, when we put up the tree and switch on the lights, what are we really doing? For some, it begins and ends there;
Decorating the home looks nice.
Twinkling lights look nice.
Mince pies taste nice.
Michael Bublé sounds nice.
For some, it’s very surface-level. It’s just…nice.
But, on a deeper level, when we put up the tree and switch on the lights what are we really doing?
What we’re doing is turning our eyes and hearts and minds towards hope.
When we put up the tree and switch on the lights we are putting a (very) visual reminder in our homes and lives that something better is coming.
We are telling ourselves that the lives we live in the here and now are not all that there is and all that there will ever be. We are turning eyes and hearts and minds to hope:
– The hope of a coming child, a son, through whom we can live a peace-filled life (Isaiah 9.6, and the theme of our Christmas series this year).
– The hope of restoration to right relationship with God and the close and intimate fellowship this brings (Revelation 21.3).
– The hope that there is something and someone who is bigger, greater, and above it all who loves you, cares for you, and stepped down into fallen creation to rescue you from it all (Philippians 2.5-11).
If we look to the world around us for hope, for encouragement, and for the reassurance that tomorrow will be better, then each and every year we may just end up putting the tree up a little bit earlier out of desperation. But, if we look only to Jesus for hope, for encouragement, and for the reassurance that tomorrow will be better, then we will be free to throw that tree up and switch on those lights whenever we want to because our hope is firmly rooted in the truth of the Word of God and the Word become flesh, Jesus.
So, when should we put up the tree and switch on the lights? I guess it depends on why you’re doing so. Thinking deeper and leaning harder on the truth of Jesus for your hope, encouragement, and reassurance this festive season, put that tree up whenever you like.
James Travis 