My “Live” Christmas Tree

We’ve finished with four community choir Christmas performances, with one more Christmas presentation at my church to come this weekend. What with practices, performances, Christmas get-togethers and shopping, it’s been busy around here. I also insist on having a live Christmas tree so there’s driving the old pickup truck into Home Depot to pick one out and haul it home (I’m partial to Noble firs). With a live tree you have to get it into water quickly or the trunk will seal over and it won’t take in water, so I put the tree into a bucket of water as soon as I got home. I refer to the tree as “live” but it’s been cut from its source of nourishment so it’s really not. It looks alive though–for a while. It’s not a perfect analogy but it reminds me of what we are without Christ in our lives, cut off branches from the vine. We might look alive but we really aren’t. We’re spiritually dead without Jesus nourishing us through the Holy Spirit working within us. Thank you, Lord, for coming to this earth, taking on our humanity and living and dying for us so we can live now in you and can go on to live with you forever!