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.
.
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
.
