A Pre-Lit Christmas Tree

This year I needed to buy a new Christmas tree for our home.  Since it’s been quite a number of years since I had to buy one, I went to a few stores looking to see what kind of trees the stores had and what the pricing was like. (Of course, I’m talking about an artificial tree!) To my surprise, wherever I went, just about all the trees already had lights on them.  When I first saw them, I thought I could never buy a pre-lit Christmas tree. After all, part of the process of Christmas is taking out last year’s lights, untangling them, seeing which ones work and which ones don’t, throwing away half of them, buying new ones, and then struggling to get them evenly spaced around the tree.  (Wow, that sounds exhausting!) 

After visiting three stores, I finally gave in and bought a pre-lit Christmas tree.  When I got it home, I put it together (it was just three pieces), shaped the branches, and plugged it in. And, what do you know? The tree lit up with just the right amount of lights, all perfectly spaced—no mess, no tangled lights!  I don’t know that I will ever go back to my old routine. 

Unfortunately, our lives are not as neat and clean as my pre-lit Christmas tree.  We constantly  struggle to make sense of the everyday events of our lives.  We work to untangle our situations, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, often realizing that the things we’ve counted on need to be scraped.  We fight to enjoy just a little bit of light, yet so often we find ourselves surrounded by the darkness of pain, sin, and circumstances that confuse us. 

But that is exactly why Jesus was born.  He came to untangle our mess, to help us in our struggle, and to bring us light.  In fact, he came to be our light!  The Apostle John wrote of Jesus’ coming, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness…The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” (John 1:4-5, 9—NIV)

You don’t have to be as perfect as a pre-lit Christmas tree.  All you need to do is put your trust in Jesus.  If you will, he will come into your life, help you with your struggles, and shine his light into your darkness.  And, his light will become yours!  

Have a great day! 

Pastor Tim Harris