Tag Archives: Tree

Everyday is CHRISTmas

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This little CHRISTmas tree we have is made from Silver Tinsel. There is a Silver Star at its top. The tree lights are all white and they glow intensely in the dark. The tree is 2 ½ feet tall and it sits on a table in front of the window. This is the very first CHRISTmas tree I have owned that when you look at it…you only see JESUS. The tree is small like Jesus was when He came down from heaven to be born of a virgin at the Incarnation. Can you believe that God miraculously entered the womb of a virgin named Miriam as prophesied back in Genesis? That God became a Holy Embryo so He could be born and grow up to become the God/man, the Messiah of the Old Testament and later the Christ of the Cross. Do you understand that His only purpose in doing that was to save you from yourself? That He came to die in your place so that you would have eternal life and not eternal death.

Jesus was born in a manger and myriads of Holy Angels announced His birth to mankind. God His Father tore open the darkness that enveloped this planet to allow Holy Light to come through from heaven. This light washed over the faces of Shepherds in the field. God still honors Shepherds today who take their responsibility to share the light of Christ with their sheep. Shepherds who lift up Christ and NOT themselves. There were no gifts given at His Birth, except God’s gift of His Son to you personally. The gifts given by the Magi came two years later. This little CHRISTmas tree represents the gift that Christ gives to you…the gift of HIS LIGHT.

It is pitch black now in my living room. I am aware of only two things. Both give my heart Joy as I now anticipate the celebration of CHRISTmas. The first is the sound of laughing water from our fountain. It fills my ears as I am reminded ONLY JESUS is the Living Water that will quench the thirst of my Soul. As I sit now in the darkness of my living room I see the second item of Joy, which is the little CHRISTmas tree of lights on the table by the window. Interesting as I approach the lights how my shadow runs and hides behind me. It reminds me that even though I have the assurance of my salvation I continually need to be bathed in the Light of the Word of the Living God to keep my sins behind me. That is what Christ came to do for you at CHRISTmas. His light while drawing you to HIMSELF at the same time drives out the shadow within you, which is the sin you were born with.

CHRISTmas is simple to understand because it is really not about us but about HIM. The Story of CHRISTtmas existed before our universe was created. It is a story from Eternity past that bridges Time to Eternity future. That bridge in Time is a tree. You see the real CHRISTmas tree was the CROSS that Jesus was nailed to. But as the lyrics from one songwriter say…it was not the nails that held HIM there…it was HIS Love for you that held HIM there.

As I look across the room to the door wall I see two more things. I see my outline in shadow and the bright lights of the little CHRISTmas tree reflected there next to me. The scene in the door wall reminds me that Jesus, the LIGHT of the World has already come. It reminds me that His light, which is the Spiritual Fire ignited within the heart of every true believer; will shine brighter against the darkness of the people of this world…until HE Comes Again as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings to claim what is rightfully HIS. Today we see through a mirror dimly, but soon the darkness will be swallowed up by Light and you and I who believe in JESUS; will live forever by SON-LIGHT.

silver tree

Gnarly Bob is a Special Friend of Mine

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When you think of the 2nd Coming of Christ, you probably envision the remnant of humans raising up their voices in unison offering their worship and adoration of the Coming King of Eternity.

But how much greater the sound will be, when the entire Creation that has suffered the same pains of childbirth together with us, will cry out in unison praising THEIR Coming King. (Romans 8:21-22)
You see unlike us the CREATION has always known JESUS.

There are few on the face of this planet made of flesh that will be here to lift up their eyes and their holy hands to greet the coming KING.

But God in His wisdom not only created flesh, but also the natural world. I would like to introduce Gnarly Bob to you. He is a close friend of mine who lives at the back corner of my condo complex. Like Simeon he waits for His Messiah. Like Simeon he lives in a time when all the signs say that his promised Redeemer will come soon. He also waits for the RETURN of the KING of KINGS.

Gnarly Bob is very old, actually ancient by human standards. I was talking to him the other day about the bloodline of the human family. How mine being a Jew could be traced back to Abraham and even further back to Adam as a human being. How God had created us to populate the earth and have dominion over it as a caretaker.

Gnarly Bob looked seriously at me with his one eye then reached down with one of his crooked limbs and gently lifted me 20 feet in the air so we could talk one to one. He lifted me so gently through the air with such strength. After all, his trunk was almost 7 feet around and his roots went deep into the earth for support.

Gnarly Bob said he was hundreds of years old and had seen first limb the years of Mankind and his caretaking abilities. He said in the Garden of Eden God had given mankind dominion, but the stewardship in the Garden was still provided by God. Then when Adam and Eve left the Garden because of the Curse of Sin…we’ll it’s been nothing but down hill from there, for the Earth and its Creatures.

Gnarly Bob agreed that God made man in His Image and that of course was a great honor. But God made many other things as well, all after their own kind. Gnarly began recounting special times when God had chosen to use his relatives made of wood.

Gnarly spoke of the wood that Noah used to build the Ark that contained the remnants of human flesh and the animals. Many of his ancestors had given freely of themselves to be reshaped into a refuge that would carry Gods precious cargo to safety. And oh the honor to have the hand of God touch the mighty door of wood and then close it shut from the outside.

Then thousands of years later Moses was told by God to use Bob’s relatives to make another Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. This was a precious Ark with precious cargo as well. The Ark contained things that God had called His people to remember Him by. It contained the budding staff of Aaron that Moses used to separate the waters for the Nation to cross over. It contained the Manna that the nation of Israel ate as God fed them for 40 years in the wilderness. And it contained the 10 Commandments, carved out of rock, with the very writing from the finger of God upon it.
The Ark also had the Mercy Seat on it where the very presence of God sat when He visited the people in the Tent.

What an honor, Bob said to be able to serve the Living God in such a way. But then tears began to flow from Bob’s one eye. He was visibly shaken, for his limbs were creaking as deep shudders of emotion came over him. Sorry Ernie, but I cannot help but feel humbled when I think of our shining hour as a specie to whom God gave such an exalted honor too.

The Cross…the Cross Ernie…Bob choked up. My ancestors were able to support the Lord as He hung between Heaven and Earth. When they drove those nails into HIM …they drove them into one of us. Bob and I were silent for a while.

You see Ernie; my ancestors have been serving the LORD longer than yours. In fact one of mine IS the “Tree of Life”. He was in the Garden of Eden. Like the rest of us he now waits in heaven for the new earth the Lord has promised us all.

My Kind have supported humans and given sacrificially to them since the very beginning.

In fact Bob said his Redwood relatives, have been on the earth since the time of Christ. They stand as a monument to the people living today of the Truth of Yesterday. You see their roots go down so deep they are actually rooted into the fossil layer of all those billions of people who died in the flood.

God has given your kind so many, many signs about who HE IS. Its hard for us to understand how dark and deep the blindness of the human race is. But we just like those of you that believe look forward to His Soon Coming to make all things new again. We had been speaking for quite a while Bob and I. So he gently set me down and I went home to bed.

Every morning as I drive to work I wave to Gnarly Bob. I represent flesh and he represents nature. Both of us are watching the sky.

The Trees look forward to the time when their leaves will clap for Joy at the sight of the return of Jesus to the earth…for then they will groan no more.The trees have always tried to talk to us, but cannot. Even if they could we would not listen for we do not have ears that hear. Next time you find yourself standing next to a tree in the sunshine on a cloudless day and you feel the gentle breeze caressing your body…look up.

Open the eyes of your heart. See the limbs gently waving back and forth. Open the ears of your soul and listen to the sound of the rustling of the leaves in the wind.

Then be silent and stand in awe as you look up towards Heaven.
The trees are doing what God has called all of creation to do since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.

For what you are seeing with the eyes of your heart and hearing with the ears of your soul are the trees lifting up their Holy Hands in Worship to their Creator… and praying for your Salvation and for the 2nd Coming of Jesus the Son of God, who brings healing in His hands for all of His Creation.

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