Big Christmas Trees - Dave's Deep Thoughts

If good things come in small packages,

then do great things come in big packages?

I love big Christmas trees

I love real Christmas trees.

Therefore I love really big, real trees.

Each year I go to a local tree farm

to pick my tree for the season.

The owner knows me.

He always gives me generous discounts

on the tree that I pick,

probably because I am a pastor.

I always look for a tree in the ten to twelve foot range.

My home has high ceilings

and the tree looks nice

sitting in the middle of the great room.

One particular tree caught my eye this year.

It was shaped beautifully.

You know how trees seem to look smaller outside

than when you being them into a home???

This tree looked big, period.

I asked the owner how tall it was.

Twelve feet, he said.

Okay that will work, I thought. So, I bought it.

I think I began to know that something

was not quite right

when I loaded the tree onto my truck.

Gosh, that's a lot of tree hanging out the back, I thought.

I shrugged it off.

There was no shrugging it off

as I pushed this monster tree

into my home and hoisted her.

She hit the ceiling.

That would be my vaulted ceiling

14 feet off the floor.

My great room now felt like Sequoia National Park.

She was a beast.

She was the Sasquatch of Christmas Trees.

I began to feel like Clark Griswold in the movie, Christmas Vacation.

There could have been a squadron of squirrels

in her belly and I would not have known.

From the base, I couldn't even see the top.

I think there was snow up on the higher elevations of the tree.

I could have played basketball next to her

and not made it up to the upper branches.

Getting her up was one thing.

Decorating her was another.

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Let's just say....

10 foot ladder sitting on 4 dining room chairs,

and you get the picture.

I have a set of angel ornaments that I always place at the top of the tree.

This year, they were going to need oxygen tanks at that high altitude to survive Christmas.

And getting the lights around the top.....

let's just say, I saw Jesus several times up there.

There wasn't much use in putting

too many ornaments up top,

you would need binoculars to see them.

I ran out of garland two-thirds of the way down the tree.

Glass balls ran out at 10 feet.

In the first three days,

she soaked up enough water

to hydrate a small town.

But the saddest thing was the Archangel.

The Archangel traditionally sits atop the tree

firmly planted on the top.

But placing her atop the tree would have shoved

the Archangel's face into the heavenlies,

otherwise known as my plastered ceiling.

So I placed the archangel precariously

on some branches just above the snowline.

She didn't make it.

Two hours later I heard a thud.

While most angels are known to dance around in the sky,

my Archangel could not handle the elevation of this mammoth tree.

She had taken the fall.

I firmly believe that in her plunge to death

that Jesus met her in the air....

somewhere between the six and seven foot branch mark.

In faith, I believe that she felt no pain.

Sometimes, we get more than we expect.

A surprise bonus at work

An extra burden to bear.

An extra long hug.

A healing that takes far longer than we thought.

More isn't always bad.

But it isn't always better either.

What seems to be true

is that less usually means more.

And yet we seem to crave more and more.

Yard sales are testimonies to our need to acquire.

Our waistlines & calorie counts bear witness.

Our credit cards shout out the depth of our cravings.

And sometimes,

the Archangels in our lives

pay the price for our extravagance.

It is said,

Live simply so that others may simply live.

No one demonstrated that more completely

than Jesus did from cradle to cross.

And in doing so,

He unlocked the secret of how to find joy and meaning in life.

So perhaps put down that extra glass of eggnog.

Let that credit card cool off.

Give your electric bill a break by refraining from that extra string of lights.

Instead, take a walk on a moonlit winter night.

Take extra time to help someone in need.

Roll down the window of your car as you drive, feel the breeze,

and thank God fora another day of life.

Who knows,

you may thank yourself.

I have a feeling,

the archangels in your life will thank you too.

Give me neither poverty nor riches;

Feed me with the food that is my portion,

Lest I deny Thee and say,

"Who is the Lord?"

Proverbs 30: 8b-9a

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