We all love a Christmas tree, all lit up, decorated…it smells wonderful and brings life to the Christmas season. That’s what it represents…Life. Christ, and the new life that He brings to us.

We all love posting and sharing pictures of our trees looking all pretty.

Today I was taking my tree down…it was ugly and dead, prickly and making a mess of pine needles everywhere.

It made me think of the tree analogy in Psalm 1…the Psalmist is comparing the person who delights in the Lord’s instruction and who meditates on it day and night to “a tree planted by streams of water that bears fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither…whatever he does prospers.”

The person who delights in the Lord’s instruction and meditates on it…the person who soaks in truth like a tree soaks in water is healthy. Growing. Bearing fruit. Not withering.

The person who doesn’t soak in truth withers. They are “like the chaff that the wind blows away” (Verse 4).

As I was dealing with my dead, unlit tree this morning, it made me think of what we look like when we’re not abiding in Christ. Not praying. Not reading Scripture.

We’re dry. Prickly to people around us. Unhealthy, not bearing fruit for God’s kingdom. Sometimes causing messes around us, like that trail of pine needles that my tree left behind it, as I drug the dead, prickly thing to the street.

I think of the aroma that a fresh Christmas tree gives off and am reminded of how Christ speaks of us as believers in 2 Corinthians 2:14 “…through us (He) spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.”

I think of the tree, all lit up, and am reminded of Matthew 5:14-16, where Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount, and He says “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

I’ve always loved the verse about the tree planted by the water…today was a good reminder of what that tree looks like without its source of life. Without the pleasing aroma of Life running through it…without its source of Light.

Father, thank you for the reminder today, to be planted in You, the only source of life and light. Shine through us, let Your aroma be pleasing to the world around us…may we spread the knowledge of You and the hope of Life in Your Son Jesus to the dying world around us.

In Jesus name, Amen.❤️