Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he
has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.
(1 Peter 1.3
NRSV)
Centuries before, there was a prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied about what would take place when the Messiah would arrive. Isaiah said, "The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame shall leap like a deer." Those weren't the signs John was looking for. He was looking for something more dramatic. He was looking for thunder and lightning.
Charles Kuralt, in his travels across the United States, found what looked like a Christmas tree growing in the most unlikely place in the Rockies. "Trees need good soil and good weather and up here there's no soil and terrible weather," Kuralt notes. "Nothing can live up here and certainly not trees. That's why the tree is a kind of miracle."
On a barren stretch of U.S. 50, without another tree in sight, grows this Juniper tree. "Nobody remembers who put the first Christmas ornament on it--some whimsical motorist of years ago. From that day to this, the tree has been redecorated each year. Nobody knows who does it. But each year by Christmas Day, the tree has become a Christmas tree.
"The tree, which has no business growing here at all has survived against all the odds." People who live miles away in all directions know and love the tree. "Just looking at it makes you think about how unexpected life on earth can be. The tree is so lonely and so brave that it seems to offer courage to those who pass it--and a message. It is the Christmas message: that there is life and hope even in a rough world." Isaiah wrote, "The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom."
God of Christmas, in the challenges that come my way, I have the comforter who is always with me. Amen.
