Tinsel

Christmas begins when the tree is decorated. At least that is the way it was when I was growing up. This tradition has continued with our family as we watched our children, and now grandchildren, grow up. This year our grandkids helped decorate. Decorating is always more fun with the help of little hands.

When I was young my job was always the tinsel. The ornaments were fragile and mom preferred putting them on the tree herself. Tinsel has all but disappeared these days. The tinsel we used was in long strands of shiny foil that we draped over the branches of the tree to look like icicles. There were two kinds of tinsel to put on the tree. There was the old tinsel and the new tinsel.

The old tinsel had been carefully removed from the tree strand by strand the year before and laid in a flat box for easy use next year. However, sometime during the year the box had been moved and every year the tinsel had formed an unruly ball of slightly dull sparkle at one end of the box. We would painstakingly remove as much usable tinsel as we could, put it on the tree, and throw the unusable remainder of the tinsel ball in the trash.

The new tinsel was not only easier to use it was also much shinier than the old. We tried to blend the old with the new in such a way that you could not tell the difference. But the only way to do it was to put the new tinsel over the old. That way the tinsel looked thicker from the old tinsel underneath and shiny from the new tinsel on top.

When Jesus comes into our lives he does not merely mingle his new life with our old life. Some things in our life that are contrary to Christ have to be removed. A few things that are useful to him, such as our talents, he covers completely so that the life we live shines with his presence.

Like Christmas trees we decorate our lives with symbols that tell a story. It is up to us what story we reveal. We can try to make the most of the old tinsel or we can let Jesus cover us with the shiny new light of his grace for all to see. As we all shine together the world will see that His gift to us, the real gift of Christmas, is his love that gives us new life in him. Merry Christmas.

Robin & Joyce