It is covered with a crazy array of ornaments. They commemorate baby’s first Christmas and my first book. There’s
a poodle in a stocking and a bear playing soccer. A Georgia football helmet hangs
alongside an Oglethorpe University boar’s head ball ornament. A riverboat from
New Orleans, a pair of mittens from Asbury Grove, Massachusetts, and a set of
wooden nametags turned ornaments from a camp high in the Montana mountains
document a few of our travels. Construction paper angels with faces that look amazingly
like the kids who grew up here are a little shopworn but still loved. Crocheted
angels and snowflakes made for us by two beloved friends scatter among bells
and balls and a bulldog. An ornament from my childhood and a nativity from when
Jerry and I first married still grace the tree every year.
It would be impossible to reproduce our tree, but I doubt anyone would want to. A couple of limbs are listing toward the floor because we discovered Wilbur has been climbing it when we’re not around and as the picture shows, at least once when we were.
Our tree is uniquely ours, and I
see a lifetime of memories when I look at it. The sweetness of each of these
ornaments outweighs my desire to make it conform to anyone else’s idea of
beauty.
My tree is a reminder that each
of us is a kind of a hodgepodge, too.
And when God sees us, he sees something beautiful and treasured. He doesn’t
want us to be like anyone else but just who we are, who he created us to be. We
may be a little shopworn ourselves and like the Velveteen Rabbit, our
stuffing may be leaking out a bit, but we cannot be duplicated. We are His and
we are loved and adored.
You may have your own tree of family
ornaments, let it be a reminder this season of how dear you are to the Lord.
I’m off now to check the tree for
Wilbur damage—ornaments fall like leaves during
the night.
“But when the time arrived that
was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born
under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have
been kidnapped by the law. Thus, we have been set free to experience our rightful
heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his children
because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa!
Father!” (Galatians 4:4-7).