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THE CHRISTMAS TREE TAKES ON NEW MEANING WHEN WE SEE IT AS REPRESENTING THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

As a priest was saying the other day, consider the evergreen. It's that time that we do! But take another look at it.

An evergreen is what it says: it is green all year round. It holds its vitality, its leaves, its fragrance. When healthy it never withers with the weather. It is able to remain the same in the dead of winter -- in subzero cold -- as during the dog days of August. It withstands rain and hail and snow and wind and what all else the weather throws at it.

When all else seems dead (other trees, which have lost their foliage; the grass, which is buried under white, or has turned brown; the garden flowers and vegetables, once so ornate), the evergreen is there with the Creator's vigor, with the forces of life, still flowing through it.

And so it is an excellent symbol for the birth of Jesus -- Who is always alive and is always there and is unchanged no matter the tempests in our lives, no matter the seasons, beyond even death!

Life expands and contracts as the universe also expands and contracts -- during winter, life contracts -- only to expand in the Spring; our constant is God.

It is time to acknowledge Him far more -- perhaps having not just a single feast day, but a week every year, and perhaps at this time of year, in honor of God The Father.

A feast week.

Perhaps, considering all He does for us, no matter the season, we need to name many churches after Him.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, says Scripture, and love of God is the completion of wisdom; fear leaves because perfect loves casts all fear out.

Back to the main point:

In the dead of winter, an evergreen is transformed into a Christmas tree that glows and glitters and cheers in celebration of an Infant Who was born to bring the "dead" to life, and to give us life -- right living (not material things) -- more abundantly. An evergreen is deeply rooted. An evergreen is always looking upward. An evergreen patiently awaits God's rain and nourishment.

To be illuminated by God's glory! This is so important at the crossroads of our lives. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mount Tabor -- whereon Jesus transfigured -- is a highland that oversaw the two key roads in the Holy Land.

It was there, overlooking the routes of men, that Our Lord was encompassed by God's glory.

We all have crossroads and winters in our spiritual lives, our personal lives, our careers, our families, our health. And it is at those times that we need the illumination of God, which is the enlightenment of truth.

How often do we wonder, do we ponder a matter? How many times are we unsure because we simply don't know? Do we beseech the Holy Spirit enough -- the Spirit of Truth?

It is at these times especially that we need a touch of His Glory.

For it is when we are approaching a "crossroads" (decisions) that the devil tries hard to distract us.

It's what the devil tries to do: distract us when we are on the way to turns in life or in wisdom and knowledge.

What is "glory"? It is the radiance of Heaven. It is wisdom. It is knowing that in ancient Israel the cross used for crucifixion was known as a "tree," and thus we see how the greatest tree in history lit up the world at Calvary.

How much we need His illumination then! It comes when we ask for it.

[resources: The God of Miracles]

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