Tuesday, December 3, 2024

 

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,the Spirit of counsel and of might. Isaiah 11:1-10

From my earliest memories concerning Christmas in our household, I can only think of how I knew Christmas was getting close. That was the putting up of the Christmas tree usually around what I learned was Advent. My father would go up the ladder to the attic and pull down a huge cardboard box filled with special bulbs and homemade ornaments including aluminum (silver) milk bottle tops fashioned into bells, electric lights, saved tinsel and much other paraphernalia. Mother dug out the cards from last year which allowed her to begin to write cards to the those who sent us cards last year. The crowning glory of Advent was the bringing in the tree from the garage. In my seventy-two years of Christmases, I always equated the tree with Christmas, perhaps because of the readings from Isiaah or Jeremiah in which branches of a tree sprang forth from the stump of Jesse. School aged children knew little of how lineage was described in the Bible.

As I grew and matured, The Christmas Tree grew and matured in my mind as a symbol of Advent, the season of waiting and hope. The Christmas tree as it turns out comes from Germany and Eastern European countries as early as the fifteen hundreds. Typically, from spruce, pine or fir they often were decorated and displayed through Advent and the Twelfth Day of Christmas.Certainly, more logical than the plastic ones we see at Costco beginning the August long weekend.That is a waiting period of nearly eternity.

I have seen many Christmas trees over my life, and each has reminded me of the hope and period of waiting inspired by Advent. The Chrismon Tree in our foyer, all white for the purity of Christ and decorated with various golden symbols of Christ. The several trees in my childhood home and of course our home in Lethbridge decorated with memories of our children and grand-children and ourselves. The other two trees are both Banyon Trees decorated and lit like the huge spruce trees outside of Martin Brothers in Lethbridge.The first is the tree which withstood Hurricane Inaki on the Island of Kauai and the other is in Lahaina which still stands and is regrowing despite being severely damaged from being in the center of the fire that destroyed property and lives in so much of the Island of Maui. They signify Waiting, Hope and Memory. We Wait in Peace and Hope. Please Lord, Give Us Patience

by Michael Larsen

 

"O Tannenbaum" trad. arr. by Joachim August Zamack