Category: Life

Christmas Symbols – Trees

Silva

“So, what is so special about trees and Christmas?”  I asked my ever-attentive family over our morning devotions.  Specifically, Christmas trees – evergreen trees.  I mean, how many of us have a Magnolia in our front room?  (What a mess; can’t stand those trees….)  No, we have evergreens sitting in our houses wrapped in lights and laden with ornaments.  What’s with that?

Trees are significant symbols.  At the earliest point in human history, we see special trees in the Garden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9).  And at the cusp of the new era in the New Jerusalem sits again the tree of life (Revelation 22:4).  There it reads:

Then the angel showed me the river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Wow!  Trees are rich in meaning – ever thought of that?  But there’s more.  Really at no other time of year do we so zero in on a tree as we do at Christmas.  What does it mean?

First, trees do represent life as they have in the beginning and will at the end of time.  Christmas is about the Life of God the Son in human history.  How better to represent that life than by a tree that has always stood for life?  The center piece of our Christmas displays – the place where all the gifts are placed and around which we sit to celebrate – is the Tree.  How appropriate.  At the Tree we are face to face with new life, specifically the new Life that will bring new life to all who believe (John 1:12).

Second, our Christmas tree is an evergreen tree.  Evergreen’s are…always green.  Strange that we would choose such a tree to sit in the place of honor during Christmas.  You can get practical on me and say they are best for ornaments or that they smell nice or you like how they stay green, etc. etc.  Of course those things are true but they don’t quite satisfy.  We like evergreens for the same reason we like eternal life – it endures and will not end.  Ever-greens remind us that life with God is Ever-lasting.  If the tree represents life, then a tree that will always stay green represents a life that will not end.

Trees don’t just represent life.  Trees preeminently represent death as well.  Moses wrote of this symbology in Deuteronomy:

And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree but you shall bury him the same day for a hanged man is cursed by God.

Paul made this personal when he wrote in Galatians:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’

Ah – now we remember: the tree that represents life was the instrument of the Greatest Death in human history.  It is the place of cursing – where God comes against the one who is nailed to it; where He came against the One who was nailed there.  Without the tree, there would’ve been no cursed punishment of sins.  All along God intended to represent life by a simple tree and use it to kill the sins of His people by killing His Own Son on it.

Still, the tree is green – evergreen.  How do we unravel this?  The apostle Paul explains this symbolism in Romans:

You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

All dead to sin or temporarily dead?  Am I free from sin’s condemnation for all time or just until I sin again?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in  Christ Jesus.

  • I am ever-free from sin’s guilt in Christ.
  • I am ever-righteous before God in Christ.
  • I am ever-destined for glory in heaven in Christ.

Ever-green reminds me that what was done on my behalf abide in the annals of the universe forever.  The work of Christ was written with diamond stylus in indelible ink.

Sit around your trees and marvel that such a simple token could represent something so rich and full.  Don’t let its symbolism stay silent – consider does it represent life for you?  Does it represent the eternal death of your sins in Christ Jesus?

Evergreen trees at Christmas – so full and rich!

What should Christians do with Christmas Symbols?

Silva

I recently read a portion of a book written by Noel Piper (John Piper’s wife; he’s pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN).  In it, she talks about their own personal practice of excluding Santa from their celebrations.

She explains why they did it – her reasons made sense to me.  Things like presenting confusing or mixed messages to the children: it’s about Santa!  + it’s about Christ!  Parents often expect their kids will be able to figure out what’s real and what’s not….

Rather than comment on Noel and John Piper’s practice (which is theirs to do as they please), how about Christmas Symbols?

I began our family Advent devotions this morning after I spent some time considering the stockings hanging from our mantle….What do we do with them?  What do they mean?  What do I want my little ones concluding about them and why they appear there yearly?  I think I owe my children a framework to understand all the symbols – they need to be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff, no?

Let’s begin where I began with them: what’s the deal with all the Christmas lights?  A buddy cornered me yesterday and said, “Dude, have you seen my house?”  Um, not recently.  “I’m telling you, you’ve got to see what I’ve done with the decorations!”  Keeping up with the Joneses?  “Crushing the Joneses, dude.  Seriously, take a look!”

So, fully loaded with 14 eager eyeballs, we drove by his place.  We found a resplendent display of white Christmas lights!  I think he might’ve even had some lights not on but the ones that were lit were beautiful.  This morning, then, I asked the kids about Christmas lights – what are they for?  What do they mean?

Once I got past the typical responses (which were correct but…you know me…) I asked them about symbols.  “What does a stop sign represent?” I   asked.  My middle one said, “safety” (Ah, music to my ears…).  RIGHT!  It symbolizes safety when it is obeyed; even potential death when it is not.  I pointed out that many, many things are symbols of other things.  “And Christmas symbols mean special things.”

I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life – John 8:12

“What does light represent?  It is a symbol of what?”  Jesus!

Have you ever noticed how we wrap lights all around the Christmas tree?  Now, I’m not sure why I’ve been doing that all my life, but my wife has as well – maybe you do, too.  One could conclude that it is this way so that there is never a place you could stand and fail to see light.  Since light symbolizes Christ, the implication is that He can never be obscured – He can always been seen by those who look for Him.

I concluded the devotion by telling my kids that it isn’t just Christmas lights that represent Christ.  It is light, period.  Street lights, bathroom lights, oven lights, flood lights, stadium lights, sunlight, car head lights – any and every light is a reminder of the One who is the Light of the world.

Think about it.

Tomorrow, maybe trees and stockings.

Why are you fighting with each other?

Silva

When you stop to think about the reasons people get mad at each other, what do you find?  Something has been violated to be sure, but what?  What about anger?  There is none who avoid anger – not even Jesus did.  Of course His anger wasn’t unrighteous but what made it righteous over against unrighteous?  (BTW, an excellent book on anger is Robert Jones’ book “Uprooting Anger: Biblical Help for a Common Problem“.) Or, given my last post with the voice-over from John Piper, what about politics?  How do people of great conviction navigate in that realm?  Are we supposed to believe that it is ONLY a dirty profession with callous and self-serving people?  I’d hardly call a man like Henry Hyde a self-serving dirtbag!  They’re out there to be sure, but ALL of them?  I think not.

So, folks getting mad at each other?  Why?  Or angry, why?  Or politics, why? I’ve been thinking  about this lately as I consider my parenting: I’ve got a pile of kids and a pile of mess.  Verbal sparring is a reality but why?  I think part of our problem is that we are actively engaging people not on the basis of whether something is right or wrong (in the objective and biblical sense) but right or wrong as I define it.  We define right and wrong in one of two ways only: internally (I write the rules) or externally (someone else writes them).

I’ve watched VERY young children act out in amazingly sophisticated ways.  Any parent will tell you that little Johnny and Susie weren’t taught to say “no,” they just do it.  That grows and blooms into a worldview where we easily define what is right and wrong and that’s what we pursue in relationships.  We hold two rulebooks in our hands all the time: mine and God’s.  Think of a balance: my rulebook on the left, God’s on the right.  If we hold these two rulebooks equally, then if you violate God’s rule or mine, the consequences (as I meet them out) are the same.  Other options include mine over God’s (my response to your violation: harshness, coarse language, grumpy, silent treatment…you get the idea); God’s over mine (my response to your violation: gentleness, firmness, restoration-aimed…you see the difference?).

Back to the balance: in my left hand, is my rule book. My “rule book” is life according to me.  It is how you should act.  It doesn’t usually include how I should act, just you.  (Maybe a chapter in there about me but many in there about you.)  They include things like: don’t criticize me unless I ask you to; don’t instruct me unless I ask you; don’t fail to call me back when I call you; don’t send me texts; vote R–; don’t drink PBR…you get the idea.

When you violate one of my rules, what have you done?  Have you sinned against me?  No.  You’ve violated a preference; you’ve acted in a way that I’d rather you didn’t.  In the end, who cares – I need to get over it (in the church we call this “Christian Freedom”).  When it concerns my rulebook, I can’t compel you to act as I would want you to.  Here’s the catch: I STILL try because at the heart of it all I think you SHOULD obey my rules just as you would obey God’s.  As I pursue my rules in your life if you fail to obey, we fight. All of this is wrong, of course.  You would be right to tell me to pound sand as I ask you to obey my rules.

Now, in my right hand I hold God’s rules as we read them in the Bible.  If you violate one of them, I’d be right to confront you, be angry, etc.  God gives His people the right to be in each other’s lives with His rulebook.  If you lied to me, I would be right to warn you that’s a sin against me: you would’ve violated a rule that God clearly gives in the Bible to govern our conduct (Ephesians 4:15).  If, however, you told me truth in the “wrong place” (my rule) then I’d have no right to get chapped at you.  How many spouses (men especially) get ticked because the other confronts in a place they’d rather not have to deal with it?  Man, do I hear that a lot (even lived through that one)!

Let’s review:

Rulebook #1 (mine) = preferences.

Rulebook #2 (God’s) = sin.

If you find yourself in a sparring match you would be well served to ask if you are holding up your end of the fight because someone has violated one of your precious preferences.  If so, get over it and yourself.  Put down your weapon and realize that the other person is no more obligated to obey your preferences than you are to obey his.

If we were more inclined to hold to the Word of God in the Bible and ask people to hold to that as well and that only, we would fight less.  Ask someone close to you to help you with your list of preferences that drive them crazy – I’m sure it won’t take long.