Believe me, please when I tell you that in our living room right now there is a tree that talks. It is a tradition brought into our marriage and family from my childhood.

Trees that can talk, that can enchant you with their stories are rare. These trees can’t begin to talk until the ornaments are hung upon them though. If you listen you will hear our tree tell you about:

• 
  

  The new wife who discovered there was more tree than ornaments so while her Navy husband was deployed near their first Christmas together she spent many hours turning “trash into treasure” to make ornaments.
  

• 
  

  A surprise romantic weekend to Nags Head, North Carolina.
  

• 
  

  A daughter’s love for her mom written on a Rudolph ornament.
  

• When our “Forever Family” was finalized.
  
• 
  

  Mickey tells you about our trip to Disney World.
  

• Karen the mermaid has a tale about the Marine Science Museum in Norfolk, Virginia.
  
• Cross-stitched mini-banners speak to you about my single days.
  
• Our daughter’s participation in Sunday School is a story told by angels whose faces are hers.
  
• 
  

  A nativity scene, a pine cone tree and caroler tell you about crafts made in after school care program by little hands.
  

• A sweet reminder of my husband’s childhood with a faded red stocking with glitter still clinging spelling out my husband’s name.
  
• 
  

  Clearance sales for Valentine’s Day that yielded spun glass hearts for the Christmas tree.
  

• Ornaments that have been gifts from others.
  
• 
  

  The sometimes odd annual new family ornament we choose each year. (Duck Dynasty made our tree this year.)

There are two other talking trees in our family life and mankind’s history. The trees from which the cross Jesus willingly died upon that were used to form its upright and cross beams.

The story they tell is one of cruelty, physical torture, hate, jealousy, the sin of all mankind, as well as of love and mystery, penalty and payment, sacrifice and willingness, death, darkness and light, grace and redemption. Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice upon those trees and by that we gained access to Heaven. This sinless man, who took on the sins of all mankind from Adam and Eve to you and I today and all the ones to come after us, did so by His own choice. God the Son left Heaven to become a man who would live and die for the one sole purpose of paying the price for our sins. This included the possibility of our becoming heirs of God, allows us to speak to Him directly in prayer. Most of all it opens up the joy of having a personal relationship with the God of the Universe, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Image from all-free-download.com, original image credit unknown.

I love the trees story of Calvary.

I love the reality that changed my life when my Savior died upon the beams taken from those trees. The talking Christmas trees of my life can remind me I am loved by family and friends but only the trees of Calvary that Christ died upon can assure me I am loved by God. The ornaments from the Christmas trees, as special as they are and were, couldn’t tear the veil in the temple into, top to bottom, so I can address God directly. Our family history, told by our Christmas tree, does not allow me into Heaven. Only the history that began on the throne of Heaven, continued from the manger to the cross through the grave back into Heaven does that if I accept the gift, if I embrace the truth, the reality of the history. Without the manger there would be no cross. Without the cross we would still be living under the Law not Grace and we Gentiles would not be part of God’s chosen people.

Maybe we all need to listen to what the trees on Calvary tell us a lot more closely. You can read about it in Matthew 26:14-28:20; Mark 14:43-16:20; Luke 22:1-24:53 and John 18:1-21:25.

Listening to the stories of the trees,

–Faye