For the last 6 years my mom and I have gone Christmas tree shopping together on the first weekend of December. A weekend of winter festivities, this has easily become one of my favorite ways to usher in the post-Thanksgiving season. We venture to a local farmers market and pick out the perfect needled greenery for my apartment. I love having a real tree in my home this time of year.
Over the years the tree has gotten bigger, I’ve added more ornaments, and I’ve upgrade lights. 3 years ago I had to purchase a bigger skirt and a new star to adorn the top as the previous options had outgrown our needs.
This year my 6-year-old nephew and 4-year-old niece joined us for our festive weekend.
We walked the aisle of firs and spruce, determined to find the perfect December addition to The Light House. We picked out a delightful 6-footer, brought her home to my apartment, and the real fun began.
We plopped that sucker in a stand and went to work. Lights, candy canes, ornaments new and old. We dressed that tree like it was the most important thing we would do with our lives that day. Mostly because it was. And once we were done, I snapped this picture:
If you look closely you’ll see ornaments that are a little bunched together. You’ll see lights that aren’t perfectly strung. You’ll see three candy canes hanging under the star in a tripod pattern, just above three more that to most probably look like they are just randomly thrown up on some limbs. Mostly because they are.
I snapped this picture and sent it to my friend saying, “Guess where Sayge decorated?”
It was comical to me that this tree was very clearly decorated with no “purpose.” There was no visible order to what we accomplished. Usually, when you decorate a Christmas tree, you try to spread things out. You make sure you don’t have too many bulbs close together and that trinkets are hung with intentional care.
At first glance, there was no intention to what was adorning this tree.
We all closed the night with popcorn, Shirley Temples, and a viewing of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We fell asleep under the multi-colored glow of our tree decorating accomplishments and yes, my heart did grow three sizes.
The next afternoon I sent a Marco Polo to my friends showing them the tree and giggling about how disorganized it was. I mentioned that I had thought about changing it after the kids left, to make it look a bit more put together. But I had decided against it because 1) I’m lazy and 2) us adults are always coming in trying to fix what kids bring to the table and I just didn’t want to do that with this sweet tradition we had just participated in together.
In mid sentence to my friends I realized what a gift the disorganization on my Fraser Fir was offering me. My niece was so proud of her ornament placement. My nephew believed to his core that he was tree designer extraordinaire.
And for me to come in and mess that up because it would be “better” just felt wrong.
Kids offer us such simplicity. It doesn’t take much to entertain them and it really doesn’t take much to make them feel special. Some eye contact and an excited look whenever they tell you the sky is blue is usually all it takes.
And as we grow up, we grow out of that simplicity. We grow out of the amazement that there even is a sky. We stop basking in the wonderment that the simple task of decorating a Christmas tree offers.
We move from delight to perfection. From joy to obligation. And we lose the point.
Jesus tells His disciples to let the children come to Him because the Kingdom belongs to them.
The Kingdom belongs to those who delight. Who take joy. Who are amazed. Who wonder. Who simply do because it brings life.
So I didn’t straighten up my Christmas tree. Instead, I look at it and smile and think of the delight Jesus takes in all of our imperfect efforts.
He won’t come in to straighten up our clustered decorations. He’ll just delight in our presence with Him in the process.
PS – I wrote a book! You can order To Showing Up wherever you choose to purchase your paperbacks! Link to purchase on the Zon is here! Directly from the publisher, here!
Kayla Smith 