A tale of two trees
It had to be just right. This could
not be any run of the mill tree because Joe was building a crib for
not just anyone this time. This time it was for someone special in
his life. Although the details of it all could safely fall in the
category marked “complicated”, the final result was that he and
his wife were going to have a baby and that baby needed a crib. Joe
knew that He was not just any baby and he wanted to make sure the
crib was not just functional but something fit for a king to sleep
in.
He had heard all the promises. Like
the one where the LORD would send another shepherd like David to
shepherd God's people. The one where there would be a king in the
line of David who would reign forever and of course the one about how
a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son whose name would mean
“God is with us”. He had heard it all but he didn't think it
would involve him. How could a mere man be responsible for the well
being of the Son of God. Shouldn't that task be given to a royal
servant, or a priest or even a wealthy business man. Shouldn't he be
born in a palace in the royal city Jerusalem. He had lot's of
questions but for now one thing was clear to him – the boy was
going to be needing a place to put down His head and because this was
the Son of God's head not just any old tree would do. No way, it had
to be the best he could find.
Well, he eventually found that tree and
he chopped it down and took it home to the shop. He used all the
skill he had acquired to fashion the best crib that money could buy.
In his estimation, it was a crib fit for a king and not just any king
but the King of Kings. Little did he know that the circumstances of
the birth of that boy would take all sorts of strange turns and that
the crib would be left behind; exchanged for a common stone feed
trough. That was no place for the Son of God but what else could he
do. They had to go to Bethlehem for the taxation census because
Bethlehem was his ancestor David's town. And what is a young couple
to do but travel as efficiently as possible hoping that maybe they
would make it back home before the baby came. But they didn't and
just as the prophet said long ago, the Son of God, the One who would
be known as God is with us, the one they would call Jesus; He was
born in Bethlehem.
….
They just picked one and started
chopping.
“Any old stick will do” the captain
shouted, “just make sure it will hold the man”.
“Once you hung up one criminal you've
hung 'em all. Nothing special needed for this job in fact the
rougher and ruder the better”.
It would be over soon enough and the
tree wouldn't be needed long.
“Let's get this over with so we can
get home” he said with little regard for the lives held in their
hands but what was that to them. They were getting what they
deserved weren't they?
Yet as they started they knew something
was different. It was almost as if the tree blushed to hold its
Maker. Almost as if it was humbled to hold such a righteous load.
Almost as if the tree could not help but bow to this man as its
sovereign.
The good book says “cursed is the one
who hangs on a tree”. As He cried out “it is finished” it was
as if the tree that bore Him groaned under the load that it bore. As
if it bent in reverence and awe at the weight it carried as the pure
and holy One it held took on Himself the weight of all the world and
then took it away. It was finished and the desire even of the tree
to eventually be right was now being fulfilled as He who bore the sin
of the world was now taken down.
No one knows what ever happened to that
old tree. Perhaps it was cut up and thrown in the fire. I guess it
does not much matter. What really matters is what happened to the
One the tree bore on those terrible hours one Friday. Why does it
matter? It matters because He who bore that tremendous weight was
buried yet He rose from the dead three days later proving that it
truly was finished and that people can be forgiven. The old tree is
gone but the One who hung there lives on and we celebrate Him again
this night as we remember that time long ago when God became a man
and dwelt among us. Jesus the one whose very name means salvation.
God is with us.
SDG
December 24, 2013
