Saturday, November 29, 2014

O Janky Tree

My daughter wrote on Facebook that she gets nostalgic for our old Christmas tree. The artificial limbs of different lengths were color coded by layer and lettered A, I, J, K, O, P, and Q, or something like that. But the colored tape wasn't differentiated well---black and dark brown, two shades of yellow. As the tape faded and became worn, the letters (in white, even on the yellow tape) became indistinct. Is this branch an O or a Q? An I or a J? Each year was a small adventure of figuring out which layer was which.

As my daughter said, she doesn't want to go back to that, now that we've a new tree. But she feels nostalgic for the process. That made me think of the way we dream about former times. My parents had a tacky tree: a little silver one with an accompanying rotating color wheel that made the tree brighten with different colors. I wouldn't want one now, but it's a Christmas memory.

"Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often" (Luke 2:19, NLT). Sometimes the memories we ponder aren't amazing events, as were Mary's, but simple things that also connect us to Christ's birth.



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