Christmas Trees
Whatever the history of Christmas Trees, their evergreen nature makes them fitting heralds for the reappearance of the Tree of Life.
You know, Christmas as a holiday has some hazy history. It wasn’t even a “thing” to celebrate until somewhere in the mid-300s AD, according to Wikipedia.
The date of Jesus’ birth, and when, or even if, we should recognize the event has long been the subject of controversy. No place in Scripture do we find God asking us to observe Messiah’s beginning moments as a particular holiday. There have even been times and places where the celebration of Christmas has been banned for being papist, for having too many similarities to pagan rituals, or for engendering entirely too much gluttony, drunkenness, and frivolity.
Whatever its background, Christmas celebrations have initiated some fun traditions—evergreens in our living rooms being one of them. Now, I know the Christmas tree has its own controversial background, but it also carries some pretty fun spiritual symbolism we can appreciate.
Trees are first mentioned in Genesis with the creation story. That tree of life in the garden of Eden held such promise for mankind. But we were cut off from it before the third chapter of Genesis was over. Fortunately, it makes another appearance at the end of the book in Revelation 22:2 bearing twelve kinds of fruit and healing leaves.
In between the beginning and the end, the tree often resurfaces in Scripture as a symbol of Jesus hanging on the cross to restore our access to life itself. He is described as a shoot from the root of Jesse, the Branch of righteousness from David’s line who hung on a tree with transgressors so that we might have life.
Whatever its background, the Christmas tree is a good reminder of Christ. The use of ever-greens for this purpose more significantly represents the ever-living tree in Revelation that offers its fruit and healing all year long.
As we decorate our evergreens this season, let’s remember the one who truly lives forever. May these dressed-up pines and spruces honor the tree of life, who not only begins but ends our Christmas story.
Thanks for joining me on “Scripture to Go.” I hope today’s snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week’s table is spread with more to nibble on. If you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my website, at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.
Thanks again to Dreamr Productions for my podcast theme music.
Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t done so already, then check that you received an email confirmation.
Terry is a writer and speaker who loves gathering clues about God from His Word and creation. She wants to help God’s people grow in wonder, appreciation and understanding of Him. She loves finding fresh ways to approach Scripture so we all expand our ability to both apply and share what we’ve learned.