So as this Christmas season officially begins, my family already has an interesting story to tell. It all started yesterday when we picked up Emma from Kindergarten with hopes of joyfully celebrating the start of Yule festivities; we would take a family trip into the mountains to chop down a tree. After purchasing the $8 permit from the forest service (this would prove to be the easiest portion of this adventure), we headed off to Rock Creek. After passing Metz Elementary, Emma informed us that she would much rather stay and play on the monkey bars; had we known what the next few hours would look like we would have gladly spent the afternoon there. Instead we persevered in our quest and soon we arrived at a pleasant patch of pinery. As we exited the vehicle, Willa began screaming immediately that she was cold. It didn’t help that she had just as quickly ripped off her mittens and hat and thrown them in the only patch of snow on the hillside. As her whispy screams of “I COLD!! I COLD MAMA!!!” echoed through the dusky canyons, we marched on in search of the perfect tree necessary to grace our living room. While Willa’s screams still carried into the mountains Piper, after being ambushed by a clump of buck brush (pun entirely intended), stopped screaming only after realizing that in order to escape her stationary predator she would need to walk the four feet around the foliage because mommy and daddy were already 100 feet away and not returning. Emma, almost immediately, reminded us that had we stayed in town playing on the playground, she would not be nearly as cold and dissatisfied. With stubborn resilience, exuding the obsessive determination that only parents and insane generals possess, we soon found the perfect tree. By this time, the sun was setting, and the moon was already brilliant; the temperature was falling quickly as Marcy and I began to saw at the tree’s coarse stump. Nearly one hour later, the obstinate tree fell, and as we dragged the woody corpse towards our vehicle, our ears caught the sound of three traumatized children screaming and crying for mommy and daddy. In the not-so-romantic moonlight, we knew what we must do. No…muzzles were not the answer today. We would simply return the next morning, without the children, and retrieve the tree we had worked so hard to acquire.
We did return, and we found the tree within minutes. As we loaded it into the back of our pick-up, we laughed about the previous evening’s activities. We drove off in a cloud of stubborn satisfaction, happily content that we had won. We had not let the circumstances defeat us…we had overcome the obstacles triumphantly…the crying, the sawing, the despair of night. And as we turned onto 160 from the Gunbarrel, I habitually glanced in my rearview mirror and uttered a question to my wife’s astonished ears, “Where’s the tree??” Yes, the tree had escaped. The wily captive who had caused such familial chaos the night before had once again defeated us. The tree had vanished. As we turned our truck around, the clock ticking on our cause and on the availability of our babysitter, we rushed back up the mountain. We eventually found our tree, resting listlessly flat in the middle of the road, just six short miles back into the forest. And as we lashed the evasive beast onto the truck bed, we headed home. Not nearly as quickly, and with frequent looks back to make sure that this tree, this amazing tree, was still there.
So with that story, I want to say to you church family, Merry Christmas. May this season carry with it the memories of Christmases past and the laughter of forgotten experiences and adventures. May this story (which will end up as a sermon illustration sometime in our future, I promise) inspire you to remember how meaningful and lovely this season can be. May it bring you joy as you thoughtfully recall your own long drives, your own screaming, and your own satisfaction. Mostly, may this story inspire us to remember that this season is not about the trees or the presents or the lights but purely about a baby born 2000 years ago. May the joy that He inspires be with you throughout this season and may God bless you all.
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