HUMILITY ~ service ~ sacrifice ~ hope

Well the Christmas tree saga continues. We bought the most Charlie Brown Christmas tree ever.

I had such high hopes. The display in the store looked so fabulous with the beautiful decorations and sparkling lights on a selection of trees of various heights and fullness’s. There was one sad little tree that I pointed out to hubs and told him~ any tree but that one. It looked terrible, all scrawny and thin in the branch department.

We selected the box that held the style of tree we wanted, paid for it and drove home. I admit, I was really excited. I missed not having a tree last year and couldn’t wait to get it set up so we could enjoy the beauty for as long as possible. I jokingly threatened hubs that I may leave it set up all year, sans decorations, somewhere in the house just to enjoy the lights. His strong, swift reaction to that suggestion quelled my enthusiasm pretty quickly. So okay, we won’t leave the tree set up all year.

As with most trees that come out of a box, it had 3 parts.

I knew the second hubs lifted out the first section that it was the wrong tree. It wasn’t only the wrong one, it was the scrawny thing I had made very clear we were NOT going to buy. We live an hour away from the store so it wasn’t a quick trip back to exchange it. Hubs encouraged me to give it a chance, throw some decorations at it and see what it looked like all decked out.

Dejected, I slowly started decorating the tree. I felt cheated. It wasn’t what I expected.

In reading through the gospels we can see that Christ’s arrival wasn’t what the Israelite people expected their Messiah to look like either.

They were waiting for a political powerhouse not a baby. They were looking for a warrior not a helpless child. They were primed for a revolution with weapons, anger and violence. They were not prepared for the ultimate warrior, the very Son of God to come into their midst and wage war against sin and death starting out with the chubby hands of a newborn.

Jesus humbled himself to come to earth. Can you imagine the glory and honor and power that were his in the heavenly realms that he willingly gave up? He traded all of that to be cast in human form with its limitations and restrictions but still remain fully God with us.

The NIV version of Philippians 2:6 says this: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.” He didn’t use his heavenly position to evade his service to mankind. All creation worships him, all heaven worships him but he chose to humble himself for us, for the express purpose of making a way for us to have a deeply personal relationship with him. To provide the assurance of eternity with him if we chose to accept the gift of salvation he provided when he gave his life for us.

The Advent of Humility lies in the unassuming arrival of a babe who has literally changed the course of the entire world since his birth. Reconciliation to the Father. The forever-forgiveness of our sins, the hope for a future in glory with him.

I decided to keep my Charlie Brown tree. It reminds me that life isn’t perfect no matter how hard I try to make it look that way. It speaks deeply to me about the humility Christ showed in coming to this earth as a baby. It asks me how I can show humility in relationships and with my actions this coming year in order to fulfill the calling God has over my life.

This past year has been challenging in so many ways. Metaphorically it looked like our Charlie Brown tree, all haggard and disheveled. But as I think back to the hardships we endured I also clearly see the hand of God in provision, protection, faith, miracles, strength, love. These things became ornaments that beautified the tree of 2024 and now serve as reminders of the true meaning of Christmas.

This Advent season, as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Christ, I encourage you to remember the sacrifice Christ made in humbling himself for us. For showing up in unexpected ways to save us. For covering our lives with ornaments of joy and hope and peace and most importantly ~ his love.

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son

and wrapped him in swaddling cloths

and laid him in a manger,

because there was no place for them in the inn.”

Luke 2:7