The Magic of Christmas

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS

Remember when you last heard one of your elders reminiscing, “I used to walk five miles to school in the snow, hanging onto a barbed wire fence”? Or how about, “I can remember when bread was ten cents a loaf”? Or better yet, “You kids ought to be grateful. I remember when times were so tough we had to share the water in an old wash tub for our Saturday night baths!”

Ah yes, the good old days! Times have sure changed.

I’m beginning to think I’ve become a member of the “over the hill gang” because I find myself thinking about how things “used to be”. The Christmas season is a great time to reflect on and compare years gone by.

The perfectly cut Christmas trees are just one example. What a shock I got one day at K-Mart when I saw a vendor sticking a Christmas tree in a buzz saw of sorts. Voila! Out came a perfectly shaped tree. If I could have followed the tree to its new home I may have seen even more grand symmetry; matching ornaments, lovely cranberry colored bows and all white lights.

I remember when........

The kids were so young. Linda, the oldest was just thirteen, while the other four trailed behind her down to four years of age. Surrounding our house were acres and acres of pines. Surely the “perfect” Christmas tree was somewhere out there, just waiting for a daddy and his brood of five to discover it.

Times were hard back then. We had scraped together everything we could lay hold of just to get to Georgia. Our older three were living in California and Charlie and I were doing everything we could to keep body and soul together. It wasn’t going to be much of a Christmas, but we would have a tree....and it was going to be the grandest of all.

As Charlie and the children traipsed through the woods it seemed they just couldn’t find the right one. “No. That one’s too spindly. Not enough branches. Yuk, that one’s weird looking.” Nearly an hour had gone by and the searching band of tree hunters was becoming weary.

“I’ve got an idea,” declared Charlie. “Let’s pray!”

“Yeah,” said Jeff. “That’ll work.”

Holding hands in a small circle, the hunters bowed their heads. “Dear Lord,” began Charlie. “You see we’ve been trying very hard to find a Christmas tree, but our search seems to be in vain. Lord, will you please help us find a really good tree? In Jesus’ Name, Amen”.

Just as Charlie said “Amen” a little bell began to tinkle. To Charlie and the children it sounded just like Tinker-Bell from the Peter Pan movie. They all looked at each other in amazement and Charlie asked, “Do you all hear what I hear?”

Each nodded yes.

One of the kids whispered, “Let’s follow the sound.”

Quietly, as if the slightest noise would break the spell; the children led by their father, began to follow the tinkling sound of the bell. Ducking under low hanging branches, fingers to their mouths to remind each other to be oh, so quiet, they began walking.

Then as suddenly as it began, the sound of the bell ceased. Looking up they were all astonished as, you guessed it, the most beautiful Christmas tree in all the world was directly in front of them.

Charlie and Jeff started sawing, while the girls in the Tuck tribe hugged and danced around the tree. Before long the prayed for tree, some twelve feet in height, was gracing our living room. Strings of popcorn and cranberries were carefully placed on it, along with handmade ornaments (some which I still proudly display on my artificial tree of the nineties) and lots and lots of silver tinsel.




That night, after tucking five weary tree hunters and decorators to bed, Charlie and I looked at the prize before us. Sitting on the couch, with all the lights out except the multi-colored ones adorning the tree, I leaned my head on Charlie’s shoulder. “You know,” I observed admiringly, “It really is beautiful, isn’t it?”

Charlie, always much more analytical and discerning than I, remarked “Well, actually Honey, it’s somewhat crooked and a little sparse over there on the right and.....”

“Shh,” I scolded. “It’s the most beautiful tree in the world. It’s the tree that an angel led you all to.”

“Hmm,” Charlie agreed smilingly, “You’re right. It does look like a perfect tree, doesn’t it?” We both grinned with satisfaction, thankful that a Savior who was humble enough to leave heaven and be born in a stable, would also listen to the earnest prayers of five weary children, looking for that perfect Christmas tree.

And that night, with visions of sugar plums (and perfect Christmas trees), five little sleepy heads would have certainly agreed with our observation. It would also be a Christmas they would never forget. I can hear them now as they reminisce to their children..... “When we were kids, we really had it rough. One time Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t even afford to buy a Christmas tree, so Grandpa took us into the woods, and while we were looking.......”

“Remember the former things of old. For I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.” Isaiah 46:9; I Timothy 3:16