The Tree of Life – An Advent Reflection

Every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving, our family puts up the Christmas tree and decorates it with all the ornaments we have collected over the years. Even though my son and older daughter have moved away, they still participated this year. My son came over and he and my younger daughter who was home from college contacted my older daughter and her husband through a video chat. Once more our family shared in this very important ritual of remembrance, starting off the season of Advent in love.

The decorating of our tree is very special to me, because each ornament represents a small chapter in the story of our family, a story marked by trials and joyful celebrations, where a memory was made and our bonds became more real in our shared experience. Our beautiful tree trimming speaks so powerfully to me about the purpose of Advent, how it is a season of remembrance, of longing, and of hope, a joyful anticipation that shines out of the darkness of our waiting, as we look forward to the coming of Christ, not only at Christmas, but when he returns at the end of time.

The Light and the Color of Transformation

Before we can begin placing ornaments on the tree, we must unpack the lights and carefully wind them around the branches, making sure they are evenly spaced. We love using the older-style colored lights, for they complement the many beautiful traditional and eclectic objects we will place on the tree. The subtle reds, yellows, greens, and blues cast their glow upon the colored ornaments, giving the tree a radiance that speaks to the diversity and complexity of our lives.

Just as the purity of light is broken up into many colors, the perfect light of Christ is reflected through every facet of our lives, revealing the many shades of grace that have carried us through the trials of the low valleys, to the triumphs of the summits of our deepest encounters with the Lord. The individual events that make up our family story become beautiful as we recall them, for they connect us to one another and to the One who has walked with us on this journey of faith.

The sorrows we have shared have left their scars, but they have strengthened us because of grace of forgiveness, growth, and transformation that has arisen from the ashes of our grief. We have faced the darkness of many deaths – some as simple as a move to a new grade, or as powerful as the loss of a loved one – and they have painted the colors of renewal into our lives, bringing rebirth out of the fertile soil of struggle and surrender. We have become new creations who are being remade day by precious day as we shine like lights in this broken world.

Holy Tears and Happy Tears

As we begin placing the ornaments on the tree, there is a grace-filled precision to our movement, as one by one, we each select a decoration, walk over to a branch, and gently place the hook or ribbon in the perfect place. I confess that I often shed tears over some of the ornaments as I remember the stories behind them. I think about my mother or my wife’s grandmother who have passed on as we place ornaments that have been passed down to us from them. I reminisce about the times my children were younger and more innocent as I hang their homemade treasures in places of honor. My tears are bitter-sweet, for though I long for what has been, I am overjoyed at the gift of love I have been given through the years, a love that is carrying me on this journey to the hope of what is yet to come.

Advent is also a holy moment of tears – tears of longing, of remembering what has been suffered, and tears joy as we hope for what is yet to come. As we read through the Scriptures from the Old Testament that point so profoundly to the coming of Christ into the world, our tears of sorrow are transformed into peace as we see promises fulfilled and look ahead to the Kingdom to come, the second Advent where we will forever be with Christ in heaven.

Past Joins Present Joins Future in Joy

Once the tree has been fully decorated with lights, ornaments, strands of wooden cranberries, and tinsel, and after a cozy fire has burned in the fireplace and my family members have gone home or gone to bed, I take time to sit in my old recliner with a cup of tea and gaze upon the tree in my darkened living room. There, with the fire slowly dying, quiet and somber music playing softly in the background, I am transported through time back to those early days, reliving in my mind and heart the joys and sorrows of the journey that have led me to this quiet moment. My soul is lifted up to the heavenlies and I experience the peace of the past uniting with the present and taking hold of the future. My failures seem to matter very little; my ambitions and dreams mingle with sacred truth and I hear God’s calling more clearly.

Every moment of Advent is a call to renewal, a transformative experience where present and past are joined in the fulfillment of love’s story played out upon humanity’s stage. In the sacraments, we are lifted up and taken back to the moment when heaven and earth are reconciled in Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. The Old Testament types are fulfilled. Jesus becomes our new Passover, leading us to the new Promised Land, the heavenly Jerusalem. Christ, the Bread from Heaven, becomes the new manna, nourishing us in the Eucharist, giving us a taste of heaven’s perfect love. The Bread of the Presence, the perpetual offering of the temple, is given to us in Christ as we come before heaven’s throne in the Mass each Sunday. Through it all, we experience the eternal, ever-present reality of salvation, unfolding in our lives and calling us to the Kingdom day by day.

The True Tree of Life – The Cross

We have always made sure to place a number of nativity scenes and symbols on our tree, reminding us that the incarnation leads all the way to the cross. We see the perfect plan of the Son, who left his rightful place in heaven, descending to the earth to take on flesh and make his dwelling among us. The beauty, the joy, and the innocence of Christmas sing out a message of love so pure, so perfect, and so beyond our comprehension. In this little baby of Bethlehem, we experience the simple, unadulterated truth of the Father’s wondrous design of creation and salvation.

All the sacrifices that had come before, repeated year after year, now find their fulfillment in the One who offers his spotless life back to the Father, pouring it out on the cross. This cruel instrument of death has now become a tree of life, for by his wounds we have been healed. It may seem that the Father has abandoned his Son and brought his wrath to bear on Jesus; but this is a total misunderstanding of what the incarnation is all about.

In reality, the cross is the purest expression of the love among persons the Trinity; for never is the Son’s love revealed more completely than when he empties himself before the Father on the cross. As we gaze upon those little nativity scenes on our Christmas tree, we are reminded of that holy tree where we see the Son surrendering himself in love for his Father and for the ones he created. This is why we wait and remember and offer our own lives in sacrifice during this holy time of Advent. We are attempting to grasp this infinite and pure love story that spans the pages of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. We are looking to the tree of life to see the One who loved us so perfectly, so completely, and so immeasurably; and as we connect to this love, we see the curse of the fall reversed and our way to heaven opened up for all eternity.

A Soothing and Sweet Song of Surrender

 I often wonder if my introspections would be lost on my family, were I to share them openly. My little retreats within myself to ponder the mysteries of the incarnation that pour themselves out as I gaze upon my Christmas tree, could seem too mystical or melancholy, too strange or silly to those who have not lived my story as I have lived it. But then again, my family is there, year after year, ready like holy artists to bring this wondrous tree to life once more. Indeed, I have seen the sadness and nostalgia in my children’s eyes as they move into their adult lives and realize that this tradition has changed over the seasons of their lives. I have received many homemade Christmas gifts from them, accepting my inner insanity while honoring the grace that has moved in my heart throughout our family’s journey of faith.

That is the beauty of Advent. It presents its story unapologetically, but also with an individuality that touches the heart of each person who hears it. The journey of our redemption from our sinful past to our hopeful future shapes each believer in a unique way; and yet, it moves through the Church in a harmoniously beautiful way, drawing the Bride of Christ to the great wedding feast to come. There is a unity to how we experience this glorious story, a blessed oneness that carries us like a holy hymn to that place where heaven and earth meet, where justice and mercy exchange a holy kiss. It is a song of surrender to the joy of the incarnation, a powerful, poetic, promise of love brought to perfection at the close of this wondrous journey through trials and triumphs, sadness and joy.

This Advent, take time to consider how your own story is intimately connected to the story of salvation. Meditate of those events of your own celebration of Christmas, and allow it to lead you through the sorrow of surrender to the joy of resurrection and peace.